Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side A

Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side A (stylized as Sapta Saagaradaache Ello (Side A); transl. "Somewhere Beyond the Seven Seas (Side A)") is a 2023 Indian Kannada-language romantic drama film directed by Hemanth M. Rao and produced by Rakshit Shetty. It stars Rakshit Shetty and Rukmini Vasanth in the lead roles. The music was composed by Charan Raj, while the cinematography was handled by Advaitha Gurumurthy and editing by Sunil S. Bharadwaj and Hemanth M. Rao.
Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side A was released on 1 September 2023 to positive reviews from critics. A sequel titled Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side B was released on 17 November 2023.
Manu and Priya's ardent love story unfolds, delving into the depths of their emotions. Manu goes to great lengths to fulfill his promise and their love faces a profound transformation when destiny triggers an unexpected turn.
Manu is an innocent, simple man and a car driver to a business tycoon Shankregouda. His lover is a college student Priya. She has a passion for singing and she dreams of living in a beachside house with Manu and her family. Manu wants to fulfill his lady love's dream.
One day Shankregouda's son Preetam drinks and drives, thus killing a man. In order to save his reputation, Shankregouda requests Manu to take this blame on himself and admit the same in the court trials. In return Shankregouda would bail Manu out and give him anything he desires.
Thinking that he could make enough money for the beachside house if he does according to Shankregouda, Manu accepts before the judge that he is guilty, much to Priya’s disapproval and plea. With the assistance of Shankregouda's lawyers, efforts are made to bail Manu out. One morning Shankregouda dies of heart attack. His manager Prabhu who is greedy and corrupt suggests Shankregouda's wife to not waste money on Manu as it was Shankregouda who had promised to help Manu. She agrees to it too.
Now Manu has neither the money nor power to help himself. Meanwhile Priya, desperate to free Manu tries contacting Shankregouda's wife, lawyer and Prabhu. But everybody ignores her. She sells some of her ornaments, hires a new lawyer for Manu's case. She even quits her education to earn money. In the jail, Manu is being beaten up by Soma and his gang because he doesn’t have anyone (Shankregounda) to back him up anymore. Because of this, he has a tough time. He later joins Patila and his team in weaving.
There are subtle moments of love expressed between the couple in the jail through cassette tapes and meetings. Though Priya seems all okay whenever she meets Manu in jail, she was slowly loosing herself and getting depressed, to a point where she stopped singing. Seeing this, Priya’s mum visits Manu in jail and tells him to let Priya move on. Guilty, Manu writes a letter requesting Priya to let go of him and marry someone else as it was not possible for him to be released anytime sooner, and to never stop singing. Priya, in denial, kept visiting the jail to meet Manu but he never showed up. After an emotional turmoil, Priya gives up and agrees to marry someone else. Without knowing this Manu, not being able to take it longer without Priya, somehow ends up calling her only for her brother to pick up the phone and let Manu know that Priya is getting married. On her wedding day, Soma gang break the radio that Manu used to listen to Priya’s cassette messages. Having given up everything, Manu revolts back and gets severely beaten up.
Towards the end, there is a teaser shown of the sequel movie where Manu gets out of jail 10 years later. Here he goes out for revenge and to find Priya again.
Charan Raj composed the soundtrack and background score. The background score enhanced the output of the movie and all the songs of the movie were well received.
Sapta Saagaradaache Ello - Side A released on 1 September 2023, while the dubbed Telugu version titled "Saptha Sagaralu Dhaati - Side A" was released on 22 September 2023.
The film premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 29 September 2023 in Kannada with dubbed versions of Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi languages.
The film was reported to have grossed ₹2.3 - 2.6 crore on its first day and ₹2 crore on its second day. The film went on to gross ₹1.29 crore on its 4th day and ₹1.39 crore on its 5th day. During its theatrical run, the film grossed ₹20 crore at the box office.
Sapta Saagaradaache Ello - Side A received critical acclaim for its storytelling, acting, cinematography and technical aspects. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 5 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10.
Priyanka Sundar of Firstpost gave 4/5 stars and called the film "Poignant, immersive and heart wrenching." Sridevi. S of The Times of India gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "SSE is an amalgamation of fine performances and rich technical values, which makes it a must-watch."
A Sharadhaa of The New Indian Express gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "A profound portrait of love. Its an intense love story with a poetic narrative and this film is a sincere love story, there is no attempt to force songs into it. There is simplicity in the dialogue that accentuates the depth of the lines."
M. Vivek of The Hindu wrote "Sapta Sagaradaache Ello is a film that doesn’t end in theatres; the epic love story offers an immersive experience that keeps you wanting more." Baradwaj Rangan told in his review that "’Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side A’ is a beautifully understated and very real romance, with dashes of a very real kind of poetry."
Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side B