Sapta Sagaralu Dhaati - Side A Review

When we first meet Manu and Priya house-hunting in an overcrowded neighbourhood of Bengaluru, their love is already in full bloom. They exude the seriousness of a couple about to be married, having matured past the initial infatuation of a new romance. Manu drives for a prominent Bengaluru family, while Priya is still a student. The city is just a pit-stop until they can build their lives in a house by the sea.

Stepping into cramped buildings in search of their starter home, they weave dreams of a better future. Priya (Rukmini Vasanth) will be a singer, what with that angelic voice of hers. And Manu (Rakshit Shetty) will be a driver, or a fisherman - it won't matter because they will be together. That's the plan, anyway - until Manu takes a decision that shatters their lives.

Hemanth M Rao's saga Sapta Sagaralu Dhaati (dubbed from Kannada) is steeped in poetic metaphors that explore the nature of love. When Manu's fateful decision lands him in jail on false charges, how far will Priya go to sustain their relationship? How long will she wait for him to return? Will their expansive oceanside fantasies survive the confinement of prison? In "Side A", the first part of this two-part saga, the tracks are meditations on the trials and tribulations foisted on their relationship. While Manu faces incarceration, Priya constructs a prison of her own, pouring all her energy into his release. The film's most harrowing scenes, notwithstanding the horrors of prison life, are Priya's visits with Manu. Crowded into a room with throngs of other visitors and inmates, they get barely a minute to talk, touching each other's fingertips to "recharge the batteries", as Manu puts it. There is a lot left unsaid about class-relations and the power of money, but we see glimpses of that commentary in the small and large bribes that Priya must pay to make jail life liveable for Manu.

Sapta Sagaralu Dhaati stands tall within the rarefied realm of Indian romances that aren't about meddling families or mismatched values. It is fate itself - helped along by unscrupulous characters and Manu's own naiveté - that conspires to pull the couple apart. Rao does utmost justice to their challenged romance giving it ample space to explore all its colours. And the primary colour he settles on to tell this story is blue. Blue for the ocean, blue for sadness, blue for the colour of the weave Manu works on in his prison job. Advaitha Gurumurthy's cinematography with its desaturated hues adds to the brooding nature of the ongoings. And Charan Raj's music might as well be playing the strings of our own hearts.

As much as its many critical aesthetic choices elevate Sapta Sagaralu Dhaati to an unforgettable experience, it is the performances that take the crown. Rakshit Shetty's sad, searching eyes tug at you - it is impossible not to feel devastated on his behalf. And Rukmini Vasanth's tear-streaked face as she contemplates the odds of Manu getting out of jail brings a lump to your own throat.

Sapta Sagaralu Dhaati is utterly captivating when Manu and Priya's relationship is in focus. But it can't help itself from not being "just about romance", and so there is a side plot about Manu's prison life - no doubt, setting up for "Side B", which looks to be far greater in scope and scale. The ending of "Side A" is thus decidedly massy and uncharacteristically loud to that effect. You do wish that it didn't stray from its bluesy moodiness. But Sapta Sagaralu Dhaati is still one of more mature romantic dramas in the last couple of years, and marks another milestone - after the brilliant Kantara (2022) by Rishab Shetty - in the upward evolution of Kannada cinema.