Santosh is a 2024 Hindi-language police proceduralcrime drama film written and directed by Sandhya Suri. It is an international co-production of the United Kingdom, India, Germany, and France. Set in rural north India, it stars Shahana Goswami as a widow who inherits her late husband's job of police constable and is involved in the investigation of the murder and rape of a Dalit teenager.
Santosh Saini, the wife of an Indian constable who was killed during a riot, visits the police headquarters for her husband's pension. She inherits her spouse's job as a constable through a government scheme called "compassionate recruitment" and is appointed at a rural town. During her duty, she overhears a Dalit man talk about the disappearance of his 15-year-old daughter, Devika Pippal, two days ago. The father has previously reported to the police but was ignored. Santosh tells him that he can file a complaint again with her. They both report to the police station but are mockingly disregarded.
The next day, she comes across a protest in front of the police station. She sees the corpse of Devika among the crowd, who had been raped, murdered, and dumped in a well in a Dalit village. Devika's parents, who are beside Devika, demand justice from the police and state that they will not move unless the suspect is punished. The police forcibly disperse the crowd; Santosh and other female constables are ordered to drag the protesters away. Santosh delivers the body to the morgue afterward at her own expense. The death and related protests receive widespread media attention.
Santosh, Inspector Geeta Sharma, and other police officers arrive in the Dalit village to investigate her death. Santosh learns through Devika's parents that Devika was last seen by her family at dawn to fetch water. She finds Devika's cellphone and reads her text messages with Saleem, who mentioned that he was going to Mumbai. She reports her findings to Geeta that evening.
Santosh visits the village chief's[a] house, where Saleem and his father work on the chief's farm, and finds out that they left days ago. Afterward, she meets one of Saleem's friends at a cricket match and pressures him to provide information on Saleem. The friend eventually texts her the name of the city where Saleem is staying.
Santosh and Geeta plan to arrest Saleem in the city where he is staying. However, Geeta has an emergency, and Santosh has to begin the investigation alone for the day. Geeta arrives later, and they arrest Saleem in the evening. They report to the police commissioner's house. The commissioner suggests they keep Saleem near his house after a politician, Beniwal, visits the commissioner.
On the day after Saleem's arrest, the police beat him during interrogations at an abandoned house. Saleem admits that he knew Devika, liked her, and received Devika's cellphone number. Unsatisfied with his answers, the officers torture and waterboard Saleem during the interrogations. Santosh is handed a paddle, then beats Saleem repeatedly under pressure before having a panic attack.
Santosh couldn't sleep afterward. Geeta gives her a sleeping pill and mentions that Saleem is dead. Santosh contemplates his death and questions if he is innocent. Geeta responds that his being innocent would not forward the case. Santosh discreetly checks Saleem's smartphone and finds out that he was in Mumbai on the day of Devika's death, which implies that he would not have raped and murdered Devika. In the following days, Santosh and the police team tell others that Saleem died by hanging himself. However, Geeta privately warns Santosh that autopsy reports will eventually reveal Santosh as responsible for Saleem's death.
Santosh visits the village chief's house and learns that Devika went to fetch water at the chief's well, as a cat's corpse had contaminated the well in the Dalit village. While Santosh is at the chief's house, Beniwal, the chief's sister-in-law, arrives. Santosh asks Beniwal whether he was aware of Devika's entry. However, Beniwal avoids her question, and one of his friends comments that Dalits are not allowed to fetch water at the chief's well and casually mentions a party they had recently. When Santosh confronts Beniwal about whether he was responsible for Devika's murder, he responds by asking what she would do if he were guilty.
Santosh meets Geeta at a restaurant and confronts her that Geeta knew that Saleem was innocent. Geeta responds that Saleem's death has brought justice and a caution to those would rape, and finding the true culprit would not be beneficial to Devika's family and village. Geeta shows her suspension letter to Santosh. After a visit to the Pippal house, Santosh leaves her uniform in her quarters and boards an intercity train.
The film was directed by British-Indian film director Sandhya Suri. Suri, who had worked with nongovernmental organizations in northern India, wanted to create a documentary on the context of sexual abuse against women in India as a follow-up to the 2005 documentary I for India. She eventually dropped the project as she struggled to translate her research "as a documentary form because it was just too horrific".[5][6] However, she decided to use fiction after she saw an image of female demonstrators " almost spitting with hatred"[7] in front of a female constable during a protest on the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder. Suri decided to create a fiction film to narrate "what is it like to be her [the female constable] in uniform and out of uniform".[8] She then discovered that an eligible person can inherit the job of a deceased immediate family member who died while in government service, which became a key part of the film's narrative.[7][8] Suri consulted with police anthropologists for the script.[8]
Principal photography occurred over 45 days from August to October 2023 in and around Lucknow, India.[9][10] The cast is composed of both professional and nonprofessional actors. One person from the production's catering team was selected as an actor. The person who would portray the mother of the deceased girl was an observer who asked what was going on while the film crew prepared the film location at a police station.[7] Real locations were used for the film; a scene shot in a hotel included people who were living there rather than hired extras for authenticity.[11] The producers sent requests to Delhi's chief controller of railways to film a scene on a train at the national railway.[12] Mumbai-based producer Suitable Producers assisted producers based in the United Kingdom in navigating shooting locations in India.[13]
British film producer James Bowsher decided that the setting would be an unnamed city in India for its portrayal of local police.[12] Producers decided not to apply for the Uttar Pradesh Film Subsidy to avoid filming stipulations from local authorities.[12] While editing the film, producers debated whether to include a score to add tension in several scenes. Director Suri did not add a score.[11]
Release
The film premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. It was also selected for the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024, where it was part of the South Asia Competition section.[14] In December 2024, PVR Inox Pictures acquired Indian distribution rights to the film from mk2 Films, scheduling it for a theatrical release on 10 January 2025.[15][16] However, the film's Indian release was indefinitely delayed after failing to obtain certification clearance from the Central Board of Film Certification.[17] In March 2025, Indian film censors blocked the film's release outright, supposedly over concerns of its depictions of Islamophobia, casteism, misogyny and police brutality, and demanded that cuts be made to the film to tone down any content deemed offensive.[18][19] The production team found the ban unexpected since the script received approval from Indian authorities for shooting for filming without issues.[17] The director called the ban on the film in India surprising as the issues raised in the film were not "particularly new to Indian cinema or hadn’t been raised before by other films".[20][21]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 57 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10.The website's consensus reads: "Shahana Goswami bristles with unforgettable intensity in Santosh, a nervy procedural that asks the hard questions about a culture's social hierarchy."[22]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[23]
Santosh received provided positive reception for its casting, especially on the effectiveness of Rajwar and Goswami in depicting a mentor-mentee relationship and the casting of non-actors, which added authenticity to the film.[24][25] The film's cinematography, which has been described as claustrophobic through its use of shadows similar to procedurals by a reviewer,[24] was also discussed by several reviewers. For instance, Variety's Siddhant Adlakha noticed consistent silent reaction shots of Santosh throughout the film. Adlakha found these camera shots "an occasionally distancing experience", but added that these force viewers to infer the film's theme.[26] The film's cinematography, by placing characters into "static frames" such as cramped police stations, houses, and alleyways, reflects the subtle compromises characters undergo in the film for The Hindu's Ayaan Paul Chowdhury.[25]
Film reviewers described Santosh as a documentary-like analysis.[27] The film provides commentary through "offhand remarks and casual cruelties" rather than exposition.[26][25] Adlankha described Suri's writing as "intellectually stimulating rather than emotionally engaging"; the film ambiguity about Devika's murder causes its lack of dramatic suspense.[26] Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times states that the film presents issues of "police cliques [...] at the cost of human drama" in several instances.[28] However, the ending was a "faint hesitation" in the film's analysis of corruption, Chowdhury notes. They argue that after a thorough analysis of corruption in the Indian police, Santosh "suddenly feels compelled to tidy things" and move away.[29]
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