Santosh - Vozes da Hierarquia

"There are two kinds of untouchables; those you don't want to touch, and those who can't be touched."

When a police officer is killed, his wife - Santosh - is trained to take his place. It is merely a ceremonial act in a police station in rural Northern India that is overwhelmingly male and traditional. Then a girl is raped, tortured, and her body dumped in a public square. The brazen crime isn't even investigated. Since the girl is from a poor family who can't read, they are ignored. It is then that something inside Santosh is triggered. Her task seems far from impossible, and yet public pressure builds and doors open that she never expected.

"The girl wore jeans and baited him."

The underground of India is revealed in this tense, observant, heart twisting, and powerful film. There is a glimpse of the justice system that prioritizes convictions by any means and ignores the real victims and perps. The film first surfaced at Cannes, and I saw it with director Sandhya Suri at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is all very moving. The film's spectacular imagery stays with me; the earrings of the dead girl, her face in the mirror, a lovely couple together, a girl selling biscuits, and a passing train.

"Santosh," directed by Sandhya Suri, is a film that leaves you uneasy. Not because it delivers groundbreaking revelations, but because of the weight of its narrative in a world ruled by corruption, sexism, and caste inequality. It's a deeply political and painfully human work, anchored by a silent protagonist whose eyes say it all. However, despite its initial impact and technically impeccable execution, the film falls short of delving as deeply as it should into the themes it tackles.

The story follows Santosh Saini, portrayed with restraint and nuance by Shahana Goswami. Widowed at 28, Santosh is forced to make an unthinkable choice: between destitution and a police career in a male-dominated system that despises her very presence. It's a pragmatic decision, but one loaded with emotional heft. The job that should represent security comes at a steep cost, and Goswami plays her with a constant tension, as if she's carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders in every scene.

Suri, as a director, creates a visual universe that's as stunning as it is oppressive. The bustling streets of Mumbai and the dusty alleyways of rural villages act as mirrors for the social disparity the film critiques. The camera doesn't just observe-it accuses, highlighting the glaring contrasts between mansions and slums, the privileges of the powerful, and the vulnerability of the marginalized. It's a visually rich and carefully crafted portrait, finding beauty even in the most devastated spaces.

But where "Santosh" truly shines is in the dynamic between the protagonist and her more seasoned colleague, Geeta Sharma, played with grit by Sunita Rajwar. Geeta is everything Santosh is not: confident, outspoken, feared, and respected. Their relationship feels like a generational clash, with Geeta embodying the strategic conformity of someone who has learned to survive within the system, while Santosh, quiet and watchful, seems to wrestle internally with what she's witnessing. This connection, loaded with subtle tensions, could have been the film's heart. However, Suri stops short of fully exploring this potential, hinting at deeper layers without fully unraveling them.

The biggest issue with "Santosh" is precisely this: the sense that the film is always on the brink of saying something profound but never quite gets there. The choice to keep the protagonist silent might be a critique of the system that stifles her, but it also limits the audience's emotional engagement. The atrocities Santosh witnesses-from the torture of suspects to the blatant manipulation of truth-are shocking, but without a verbalized response, these moments often feel like visceral observations rather than truly impactful reflections.

Another notable aspect is the way the film addresses gender and caste issues. While these themes are present in nearly every scene, they rarely receive the nuance they deserve. The subplot of the murdered girl, which should serve as the narrative thread, ends up taking a backseat to scenes that prioritize atmosphere over narrative depth. It feels like the film wants to say everything at once but struggles to articulate any of it clearly.

Even so, it's impossible to ignore Suri's talent for creating visually arresting scenes. The moral tension that permeates the film is mirrored in the meticulously composed frames, where the clarity of urban landscapes contrasts with the ethical darkness inside the police station. This aesthetic choice creates an interesting duality but feels more like a visual provocation than a fully developed commentary.

What truly saves "Santosh" from drowning in its own ambition is Goswami's performance. Even with few lines, she crafts a complex protagonist-someone who clearly wants to do good but is lost in a system that turns good intentions into liabilities. It's impossible not to empathize with Santosh, even as she remains passive in the face of the injustices around her.

Overall, "Santosh" is a film that provokes but doesn't overwhelm. It makes you think, but it doesn't transform you. Still, it's an important portrayal of a society riddled with contradictions, where women are forced to find strength amid oppression and silence. Suri may not have delivered a perfect film, but she's certainly given us something to chew on-even if, by the end, we're left feeling like we're still hungry.

What an honor to be the first to write the review here!

I just saw this movie at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and I was immersed in it from the 1st moment. It's huge - bravo Sandhya Suri, bravo all the cast! What a realistic and technically flawless movie.

Very complex system (and the situation of misogyny) in India is neither easy to understand nor describe - Sandhya Suri did it very well. She couldn't let go the shocking events and painfully nonsensical injustices felt very deeply and obviously researched thoroughly - and she managed to portray it all here!

Thank you for this movie, on behalf of all the oppressed.

Big love and respect!

A gripping, engaging, and naked depiction of reality of the society, it's casteism and how this thing affects the lives of people... Narration wise, acting wise, technical wise a brilliant movie. A gripping, engaging, and naked depiction of reality of the society, it's casteism and how this thing affects the lives of people... Narration wise, acting wise, technical wise a brilliant movie. A gripping, engaging, and naked depiction of reality of the society, it's casteism and how this thing affects the lives of people... Narration wise, acting wise, technical wise a brilliant movie. A gripping, engaging, and naked depiction of reality of the society, it's casteism and how this thing affects the lives of people... Narration wise, acting wise, technical wise a brilliant movie.

Santosh (2024) : Movie Review -

Let's take a moment to recall all the best cop films ever made in the Hindi language. Zanjeer, Sarfarosh, Singham, and Article 15-does the list end here? Well, you can add your other favorites too, but believe me when I say this from the depths of my heart: Santosh surpasses all those films. Interestingly, it's a lady cop movie, and most of those films people mention as the best cop movies feature male leads. Another interesting fact is that it is not an outright Bollywood movie but an international co-production involving the United Kingdom, India, Germany, and France. This film addresses corruption and the failures of the police system while also highlighting the severe impact of casteism and Dalit issues. I don't think any Hindi movie has ever been this diverse in the cop-drama genre, making it the best cop film ever made in our language.

Santosh is usually a male name in our society, but it is sometimes used for females too. This film features a leading lady named Santosh (Shahana Goswami), who takes on her late husband's role as a police constable after he is murdered by an unknown group while on duty. According to the rules, the widow gets the job, and Santosh is initially content with her position, only to witness the darker side of police duty. Shortly after trying to adapt to the police system and accepting her first bribe, she is tasked with finding the killer of a teenage girl who has been brutally raped, murdered, and then thrown into a well. She works under Senior Officer Geeta Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), learning all methods of police work, and they manage to capture the perpetrator they have been pursuing. What happens next must remain a surprise, so it stuns you when you watch the film.

Sandhya Suri, as a writer, deserves a huge round of applause for discovering new ideas in the cop drama genre. The Santosh movie not only addresses corruption and the fragmented systems within the police department but also highlights social and sensitive issues like casteism, religious hatred, Dalit issues, honor killings, and human conscience. You might recognize this idea of human conscience from the Hollywood classic "The Oxbow Incident" (1943)-one of the earliest films to explore the conflict between human guilt and conscience, showcasing the relentless torment one can face after committing a crime-or you can find similar themes in Jolly LLB 2 or a few Malayalam classics. Santosh extends that concept, creating a beautiful compilation of multiple hard-hitting themes, knowing that even a single theme can make for a great movie. Now imagine watching 4-5 different themes blended together in a highly artistic film with virtually no flaws. Isn't it just wonderful? Santosh achieved this-it's unbelievable, but Santosh did it! There are at least a dozen scenes that warrant discussion for their artistic references and cinematic nuances, but sadly, I can't spoil them here for your own good. People are typically satisfied nowadays with just one or two aesthetically pleasing scenes in any movie, yet here comes Santosh, which doubles or triples the bonanza! Hats off to the greatest scripts and screenplays ever written in this genre. Sandhya ma'am, I salute you and your brilliant work!

Shahana Goswami has truly demonstrated what acting means to all Hindi actresses. This is the best performance by any actress in 2024, and that too by a wide margin. Goswami alone has outshined the top three performances of the year in Bollywood. Sunita Rajwar is simply OUTSTANDING! I can hardly believe what I just witnessed. Sunita ma'am, what a remarkable actress you are. These Bollywood and TV serial directors have done a tremendous injustice to you and your acting finesse by assigning you mediocre roles over the years. You deserve to work in Hollywood or foreign cinema, given the way you have performed in Santosh. Not a single frame lacked substance from her. Can you believe it? I couldn't, even while witnessing it. Since this is a hard-hitting and very realistic film, the supporting cast needed to be natural, and what fine support they all provided. A big thank you to Sanjay Bishnoi, Kushal Dubey, Nawal Shukla, Pratibha Awasthi, and others, for creating a superb acting unit as a whole.

Santosh is undoubtedly one of the best films of the year, considering the technical aspects. The cinematography and editing both deserve to be nominated in every award show and should most probably win them all. The sound design (Oh, those FM and songs in the background) and the BGM are just fabulous, and the film has great production design despite a low budget. Actually, that was necessary here since the film had to look real, and for that, the real locations and those camera angles helped it become a cinematic classic in technical aspects. Dear Sandhya Suri, where are your feet? I want to touch them, finally quenching my thirst for a CLASSIC HINDI MOVIE after years. Your vision, storytelling, presentation, and understanding of real cinema exceed expectations. You have left me speechless with at least 15 scenes in Santosh, and I don't even remember the last time something like this happened to me after watching around 500 movies in a year. Santosh and those scenes will forever be in my memory whenever I think about any female-led film or a cop movie, and I don't think anything can come close to this masterwork. I usually don't like it when a movie defames our police department for the sake of fictional masala entertainers, but Suri's realistic form of art made me realize how others have failed to understand how to use it in cinema. Santosh is truly a CINEMATIC GEM and MUST be on your MUST-SEE list right this minute.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest.