Santosh
Sandhya Suri’s drama dealing with caste and corruption in India is a debut of real importance.
Image courtesy of Vertigo Releasing.
Sandhya Suri was born in Darlington and studied film at the National Film and Television School but when she made her first award-winning film for cinema her father Yash Pal Suri appeared in it and its title was I Am India. That was in 2005 and India remained central in her next two works, one of which, the 2018 short The Field, again proved to be an award winner. Now we have Santosh, a project first considered many years ago when it might have yielded another documentary but which turned instead into Suri's first full-length dramatic piece, a work which she has both written and directed. Nominated by the UK for consideration for an Oscar in the category of International Features, it did not actually become a contender but it still counts as a triumph for a first feature to be put forward in this way.
There is no doubt at all about Santosh being a significant film because the tale it tells although fictional deals with important social issues affecting India. Suri has described how the film has its roots in the impact upon her of events which took place in New Delhi in 2012. A 22-year-old named Jyota Singh was gang-raped and later died and the handling of this by the authorities brought out protesters on the streets. One detail would play directly into what would become Santosh because Suri remembered seeing a photograph in which one of those protesters spat at a constable who was herself a woman. Having spent time wondering if a documentary about violence to Indian women and especially to lower caste Dalits could usefully tackle these issues, Suri reached the conclusion that an enacted drama would be even more effective. Thus, Santosh was born and due to that photograph, the central character, Santosh herself (Shahana Goswami), is a female constable in a force dominated by men. In fact, her presence in this job as explained in the film’s opening scenes derives from the death of her husband who as a policeman had died on duty at the hands of rioters. Since he had died young and after a relatively short period of service, the pension for his widow is small and consequently Santosh benefits from a ruling in India whereby the surviving dependent of a government worker is allowed on compassionate grounds to take on the deceased’s role and be paid accordingly.
It might well be expected that a widow becoming a police constable in this manner would do as little as possible. But Santosh shows how, despite realising how prejudiced the force can be especially towards Dalits and Muslims but also towards women generally, this new constable throws herself into her work. This especially applies as soon as she finds herself involved in handling the case of a missing 15-year-old girl whose body turns up in a well having been thrown there after the girl had been raped. This particular case is being handled by one of the country’s few female inspectors, Geeta Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), who is herself a feminist and who becomes a mentor to Santosh giving her strong opportunities to assist especially when it comes to tracing a likely suspect. He is a youth named Saleem (Arbaz Khan) and Santosh is proud of her role in the events leading to his arrest, albeit disconcerted on realising that beating him to get a confession is regarded as entirely acceptable.
At 128 minutes, Santosh is a long film but it holds its length well. It gains too from the excellent lead performances by Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar and from the interest inherent in the settings (the story unfolds in northern India, a region not often featured in films from that country). But impressive as the film is there are, I feel, weaknesses in the writing. At the outset Suri’s screenplay introduces a lot of characters in a series of scenes that initially feel bitty and can leave one unsure just who is who and which of the characters appearing are important to the story. However, before long the news of the missing girl comes to the fore and from then on the narrative is more straightforward. But when it comes to the final scenes, I am not entirely convinced that the somewhat open ending is as effective as it should be: we see what happens but interpreting it and recognising the motivation involved is largely left to the individual viewer. Even so, the most damaging lapse of all occurs – in my eyes at least – in the middle of the tale when one major figure appears to act out of character in a way that disrupts our ready belief in the narrative (we can see reasons why this change of attitude might take place but the screenplay falls short in not providing any direct build-up or explanation).
Nevertheless, Santosh not only has very strong merits that make these possible misjudgments less significant but is possessed of a clear importance in subject matter that makes it vital viewing. The caste system as such ended in India in 1950 but Suri’s film, a strong narrative but also a film intended to disturb, is a reminder of today's reality which was also the subject of that fine 2021 documentary Writing with Fire about Dalit women bravely running a newspaper. Two particular facts underline the need for Suri’s film in 2025. First, although it may have been sparked by her recollection of that murder case in 2012, a new case has hit the headlines just this year with an 18-year-old Dalit from Kerala accusing sixty-four men of sexually abusing her from the age of thirteen onwards. Secondly, Santosh was set to be screened in India in January but its opening has been delayed due to concerns on the part of India’s Central Board of Film Classification rendering its future there uncertain. The need for Suri to speak out through this film is surely proved beyond doubt.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Shahana Goswami, Sunita Rajwar, Nawal Shukla, Pratibha Awasthi, Manjul Azad, Arbaz Khan, Anil Gudiya, Sangama Tharu, Sanjay Bishnoi, Shashi Beniwal, Kuldeep Saini, Anamika Gupta.
Dir Sandhya Suri, Pro Mike Goodridge, James Bowsher, Balthazar de Gabay and Alan McAlex, Screenplay Sandhya Suri, Ph Lennert Hillege, Pro Des Devika Dave, Ed Maxime Pozzi-Garcia, Music Luisa Gerstein, Costumes Bhagyashree Dattatreya Rajurkar.
BFI/BBC Film/MK2 Films/Haut et Court/A Good Chaos/Suitable Pictures/Razor Film Produktion-Vertigo Releasing.
128 mins. India/UK/Germany/France. 2024. UK Rel: 21 March 2025. Cert. 15.
