[Review] Santosh (2024) | Sandhya Suri | Shahana Goswami

Santosh (2024) is a British-Indian crime-drama film directed by Sandhya Suri and starring Shahana Goswami as the titular Santosh.

Starring Sunita Rajwar, Sanjay Bishnoi, Kushal Dubey, Nawal Shukla and Pratibha Awasthi among other names, the film follows a woman who takes her husband’s job as a police officer after he is killed in the line of duty.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS & DISCUSSES MATURE THEMES. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

Santosh (2024) Synopsis:

Newly widowed Santosh inherits her husband’s job as a police constable in the rural badlands of Northern India. When a girl’s body is found, she’s pulled into the investigation under the wing of charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.

Santosh (2024) Review:

Why is Santosh banned? I’ll tell you why. It’s because Santosh doesn’t bend to the norms of a sexist and regressive culture. There’s no deification of the lead, nor are the villains caricatures that are impossible to take seriously. Neither does the film preach the values of old times, rallying its viewers to act against ‘the enemy’. Instead, the film merely presents a mirror to the society that is today. In addition, the film treats its heinous crime as it should, with the slow burn exploring the regressive society that enabled this crime. There are no morals, there are no lessons. This is just a cautionary tale that tells the truth of grassroots India.

Right in the opening scene, we learn that Santosh (played by the talented Shahana Goswami) is a widow. Her in-laws refuse to let her live with them because they consider an ill omen, blaming her for ‘bewitching’ and ‘killing her husband’. The reasoning behind this? She’s a woman, and she had a love marriage. If you know even a little of Indian culture, you know that this kind of conversation is a very real probability, especially in conservative households.

Santosh’s husband, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty during a riot in a Muslim-dominated are. When collecting his pension, she learns of a program that allows widows to assume their deceased husband’s position in the police force. Not willing to depend on anyone, she takes up the position and undergoes training to become independent. But, the sexism that plagues most traditional societies is present within this law enforcement ecosystem as well.

Misogyny, Casteism, and Islamophobia – the unholy triumvirate of a backward society

Sunita Rajwar as Geeta Sharma, and Shahana Goswami as Santosh

The film presents the male gaze as repulsive. Men both young and old ogle Santosh with abandon. If that isn’t enough, there’s also a heavy dose of casteism and islamophobia that Santosh tries to circumvent. The cops don’t entertain the lower caste bereaved. They seek aid from the local cobbler who is somewhat educated and knows the procedure to file police reports. Hell, when a low caste man comes to file a missing persons report for his underage daughter, the cops make fun of him in the most disgusting and casteist manner.

All this bubbling tension further explodes when the primary accused ends up being the missing girl’s lover, who happens to be Muslim. When he’s caught and tortured during interrogation, the cops don’t hold back from hurling racist and Islamophobic slurs his way. The primary, Geeta Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), doesn’t seem to waver even when she’s asking him questions that include gruesome details of the alleged rape and murder.

Navigating multitudes of societal issues, Santosh tries to keep a calm head. But she can’t. She’s human after all. She too succumbs to inflicting police brutality in one of the film’s most emotionally powerful scenes. Of course, this is her attempting to find closure for her dead husband, but all it does is muddle the waters more.

Fly on the Wall

A still from Santosh (2024)

My favourite part of the film was the almost fly-on-the-wall approach that director Sandhya Suri employs to tell a gritty story without emotional manipulation. She doesn’t tell you what to feel, instead showing you images and letting you come to your own conclusions. Throughout the investigation, the crowd is more than certain of who did what, whereas Santosh approaches each incident with caution as prescribed by the law. But, it’s only her who is cautious. Everyone, including Geeta Sharma are insouciant towards the crime, the accused, and even the victims.

While Geeta Sharma is a powerful mentor character, she has her share of flaws. She’s clearly a closeted homosexual, making subtle advances towards Santosh. Her authority is almost ‘masculine’, her banter with her fellow cops very much like you’d see in a buddy cop film. She doesn’t hesitate to bully anyone as long as it gets the job done. She’s a woman, but employs traditionally male methods to do her work.

Lastly, I want to talk about the titular character’s name. While Santosh is a common male name, it is also unisex. The film addresses this in a scene where a superior asks Santosh why she has a guy’s name, and she clarifies that it’s also a girl’s name in some cultures. A subtle nod to how not everything is reserved for men. Yet, society fails to understand that little nuance.

Santosh (2024) Ending Explained (SPOILERS)

Shahana Goswami as Santosh, surrounded by the upper caste men of her village

Without overtly confirming anything, Santosh learns that the upper caste men of the village probably kidnapped and gang-raped Devika Pippal. Subtle hints point to how the Dalit village’s well is constantly polluted by outside forces (throwing in dead animal carcasses), which might have compelled Devika to attempt drawing water from the upper caste folks’ well. However, such a ‘heinous’ crime cannot go unpunished, can it? This crime is a nod to several real cases that went unsolved, and the accused walked away free. Just Google ‘caste crimes’ and you’ll get a list that’s longer than it should be.

Santosh tries to bring this up with Geeta Sharma, but she reveals her suspension, hinting at the possibility of a political career. Seeing that there isn’t any hope, Santosh packs up and leaves for Mumbai.

Whether Santosh chose to abandon the fight for change, or whether she requested a transfer to a bigger city to aim for promotion to change things from the higher up, it’s never clarified. However, I believe it’s the former. After all, the world that Santosh lives in is unbearably backward and repulsive. If I were in her place, I too would run away and never look back.

Is Santosh (2024) worth watching?

Yes. A must watch. It’s time we boycott films that incite violence and provoke riots, or encourage problematic cultural norms. Instead, watch this poignant and real exploration of what Indian society is truly like.

The cinematography and sound design are subtle and haunting, immersing you in a world that’s as real as it is uncomfortable. Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar’s performances shine throughout the film, the treatment making you feel like you’re sitting right next to them, witnessing a real incident play out before your eyes.

There’s no hyper-stylisation of scenes. There’s no problematic glorification of culture or people. The film is human, but its world is not quite. In a post-truth world plagued with propaganda films and brain-rot content, this is the kind of cinema we need a lot more of.

In Conclusion:

Santosh is not an entertainer. It is a hard watch that unveils the misogyny, islamophobia, casteism and other prevailing socio-economic issues. We all know of these issues but our mainstream media ignores them so they can focus on pointless debates and TRPs.

Watch Santosh.

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Have you watched Santosh (2024)? What did you think about this film? Let me know in the comments below, along with any film recommendations you’d like me to watch/review.

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