Director Sampath Nandi and actor Gopichand have both been on a low for quite a long time but Seetimaarr did draw audiences in this festive season. The promos had the director stating clearly that the film is a mix of crime and sports drama.
- Cast: Gopichand, Tamannaah Bhatia, Bhumika Chawla
- Direction: Sampath Nandi
- Music: Mani Sharma
Starting with a perfect mass and a masala mix, the director is back in his elements, aided by an apt casting and good writing. There is no complex narration, the film begins with bad cop Makhan Singh and his brother wreaking havoc in the police department and around Ghaziabad. When good cop Aravind (Rehman) steps in and kills Makhan’s brother, Makhan goes baying for his blood.
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Meanwhile, Karthi (Gopichand), who is Aravind’s brother in law, is the coach of the women’s Kabaddi team in Andhra Pradesh, who wants his team to win the national championship. Tamannaah is the coach for the women’s team from Telangana.
When the teams land in Delhi, Makhan Singh kidnaps Karthi’s team and pressurises him to kill Aravind. Does the hero succumb to this blackmail, or does he have a plan up his sleeve?
The director doesn’t falter in characterisation and gives each of them the right footage. Rao Ramesh as usual excels in his dialogue delivery and expressions, his usage of medical terminology in dialogues is indeed fresh. One wished Rao Ramesh’s part didn’t end abruptly. The dialogue referring to the Nirbhaya incident, “ Delhi lo aadapillakey dhikku ledhu, ikkada palletooru ammailani yevaru pattinchukuntaru (there is no safety for girls in Delhi, who will bother about these village girls?” strikes a chord when the coach wants to take the girls to Delhi for the championship. Digangana, Pragathi, Annapurna and others do a good job. Thankfully, the villains don’t end up as dummies.
Tamannaah’s Telangana dialect is unsettling, someone else could have dubbed for her. Though catchy, the ‘Jwala Reddy’ song comes at a serious moment and disturbs the narrative. Gopichand and Tamannaah make a good pair and the reasonably good script helps the actors perform with confidence. Bhumika does her part well.
The writer Sampath Nandi dominates here, and he has done commendable work in getting his team to perform. Be its production design, Mani Sharma’s music or cinematography, everything falls in place and it is a seetimaarr moment for Gopichand who is starving for a good mix of a mass and an emotional script.
Seetimaarr is currently running in theatres
