Santosh

When a 15 year old girl goes missing in a rural community near Lucknow, Utter Pradesh, the police are typically uninterested: the girl’s father is Dalit (“lower caste”) and illiterate, there is minimal chance of exacting a significant bribe. But trainee officer Santosh (Shahana Goswami) feels differently. A widow who inherited her husband’s job, she understands what it is to be marginalized and desperate. It’s only when the corpse shows up (bringing the media in tow) that the investigation ramps up, but even then wholesale incompetence and prejudice render the concept of justice seem far-fetched.

The feature debut by British-Indian writer-director Sandhya Suri, Santosh is a murder mystery that’s also an investigation into India’s social stratification, sexism, and corruption. Suri comes from documentary, and brings with her an austere aesthetic that grounds the film in realism, not genre. The film finds its centre in the relationship between the trainee cop and the older female officer (Sunita Rajwar) who is brought in to lead the case. There’s an element of mentorship and solidarity, but, intriguingly, a certain cynicism too: complicity isn’t solely a male prerogative, after all.

Stark, unflinching, fearless.

Shubhra Gupta, The Indian Express

Technically a crime drama in which a police officer investigates a murder. But it’s bigger than that: Santosh is equally about the methods by which the poor and oppressed are kept in their place, and about what it means to be woman among men who aren’t at all interested in sharing their power.

Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times

To watch “Santosh” is to feel the undeniable power of a discerning, resonant case study.

Robert Abele, LA Times