If the new trailer for Seetha Payanam is any indication, Arjun Sarja's not about to play it safe as his daughter Aishwarya Arjun makes her acting debut - right on the eve of her film's release, no less. The footage suggests Arjun is taking a bit of a risk with this one, trying to square the circle of fitting a tense thriller onto the framework of a road movie.
The core idea is simplicity itself: Seetha (Aishwarya) - a chef who's pretty much at her dad's mercy - offers a ride to a guy (Niranjan) on one condition: he has to let her listen in on every single call he gets. It's a nifty idea that lets the trailer start off lighthearted and playful then flip on its head and get darker & much more intense as things go along. By the time Dhruva Sarja shows up and gets to indulge in a bit of over-the-top action hero stuff a la his "Action Prince" schtick - the film has already ditched any pretense of being a romantic comedy for something a lot grittier.
As for the tech side of things, Seetha Payanam has all the hallmarks of a big budget spectacle thanks to the input of cinematographer G. Balamurugan, whose clean visuals are matched by Sai Madhav Burra's writing - the same guy who penned RRR - and some rock solid dialogue that lets you see the depth in Prakash Raj's performance when he's talking about the importance of family. The fact it's coming out on Valentine's Day might make you think it's a romantic film, but Arjun Sarja seems to have a different idea, banking on a film that's all about the journey - not romance - that'll appeal to families. With a bunch of other high-concept comedies like Funky already out, Seetha Payanam is basically a veteran director putting it all on the line to see if a suspenseful road movie can still pull in the crowds.