Rakshit Shetty Excels in Story That Depicts Jails as Hellholes

Cast: Rakshit Shetty, Rukmini Vasanth, Achyuth Kumar and Pavitra Lokesh

Director: Hemanth M Rao

Young actor-producer Rakshit Shetty, who showcased traces of his acting brilliance in ‘777 Charlie’ has yet again delivered a riveting performance as a love-lorn driver in his latest film ‘Sapta Sagaralu Dhaati’. He excels in a self- piteous role as he accepts a crime to earn a quick buck to settle down in life with his doting lover girl (Rukmini), but ends up in his jail. His trials and tribulations thereafter take audience into a pathos and tragic mood as he suffers a lot in the hands of ruthless inmates and ends up cleaning dirty toilets and also understands the corruption in jail.

Rukmini looks pretty and comes up with a decent enough performance to pull off the tragic-ridden love story. Director Hemanth uses jail in his script as a separation between two young lovers, but he is more caught up in the torturous life of jailbird than the longing romance of young minds. The hard hitting depiction of exploiting young inmates by dreaded criminals is a bit hard to digest.

Telugu audiences have partially patronized breezy romances like ‘Kushi’ and ‘Miss Shetty and Mr Polishetty’, but we have to see how they would have received this ‘pathos’ ridden love story from Kannada film industry which is bereft of lavish songs and usual comedy tracks.

Rakshit Shetty works as a driver for a rich family and lives in a small room. He is in love with Rukmini, who is an aspiring singer. They start hunting for houses to move in together, but are not satisfied with cramped houses in cringed environs. They even visit a swanky apartment and love the spacious 3BHK flat with picturesque views from the balcony. Rakshit resolves to buy a house near the sea shore as Rukmini is fascinated by sea waves and breeze. One day, his boss asks him to go to jail in a hit-a-run case to protect his doting son. After dilly dallying for some time, Rakshit agrees since he is assured a huge chunk of money. What happens to his life after he confesses to his crime forms the rest of the story.

Rakshit Shetty looks handsome and aptly fits the role of a young driver who dreams big. He showcases his innocence, anger and anguish with ease as he languishes in jail after the boss who promised to get him out on bail, dies suddenly. Rukmini has her moments too and showcases her happiness and sorrow as she misses her lover in jail. Pavitrha Lokesh, Avinash and Ashok Sharma do justice to their roles.

Director Hemanth heavily banks on the hero's suffering in the hands of his criminal inmates and triggers sympathy around him, but it goes overboard a bit. The maker could have toned down those portions to make it more Telugu viewer-friendly. He could have also avoided a lot of repetitions in his screenplay too. Nonetheless, in a relief to the viewers, the director keeps the hopes of the viewers alive by hinting a the reunion of the lovers again ‘albeit’ in his sequel.