Sabar Bonda (Marathi for 'Cactus Pears') is a 2025 romantic drama film written and directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, in his feature directorial debut.[1] It follows Anand (Bhushaan Manoj), a man from the city who returns to his hometown following a death in the family, and reconnects romantically with his childhood friend Balya (Suraaj Suman).[2]
The film had its world premiere at the World Cinema Competition of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on 26 January,[3] where it won the Grand Jury Prize. It was the first Marathi-language film to premiere at the festival.[2][4][5]
Cast
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade
Bhushaan Manoj
Suraaj Suman
Jayshri Jagtap
Bhushaan Manoj as Anand
Suraaj Suman as Balya
Jayshri Jagtap as Suman
Release
Cactus Pears had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on 26 January 2025 in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section, in which it won the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic.[6][7][5] It is also slated to screen at the 2025 Göteborg Film Festival.[8]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10.[9]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 82 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[10]
Wendy Ide of Screen Daily reviewed, "Cactus Pears is a subdued, sensitive study of bereavement and the quietly radical act of being queer in a rural, lower-class Indian community."[11]IndieWire's Ritesh Mehra wrote that the film "is commendable in how it demonstrates the unique silent pains borne by many queer men who, despite their male privilege, have to fight to remain unattached (same sex marriage is illegal in India), to not be infantilized, and to realize relationships longer lasting than quick clandestine sex."[12]
Tatsam Mukherjee at The Wire remarked "Kanawade’s film goes full monty, by addressing queer folks in Indian villages – places often even without the vocabulary for it. But it steers clear of the hostility and venom one might expect to arise from such a situation. Sabar Bonda, in fact, goes in the other direction by shining a light on the cowardice of society – especially while facing someone who owns their sexual identity."[13]
The film won the Audience Award for narrative features, and Bhushaan Manoj won the award for Best Performance, at the 2025 Inside Out Film and Video Festival.[14]
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