
Ripped from her life of domesticity, Santosh, a young widow now desperate to support herself, accepts an opportunity to inherit her husband’s job as a police officer in the rural badlands of India.
Quickly taken under the wing of Sharma, a charismatic and commanding older female inspector, Santosh begins an investigation into a low-caste girl’s brutal murder that plunges her into a gritty world of crime and corruption.
Director
Sandhya Suri
Cast
Shahana Goswami, Sunita Rajwar, Pratibha Awasthy
Rating
Year
2025
Country
United Kingdom, Germany, India, France
Language
Hindi
Main Trailer
Reviews
- "Suri’s film is full of non-actors who excel at being themselves in front of the camera, the result so eminently watchable because it feels so remarkably like the real India."
- indieWire - "This assured sense of direction coupled with controlled performances make Santosh a compelling drama. But it’s Suri’s screenplay that renders the film immersive."
- TheWrap - "Caste and religion and class and gender are all part of this system, and that’s the broader critique in “Santosh,” which is quite furious by the end."
- New York Times - "It’s a terrific feature debut from British-Indian documentary filmmaker Sandhya Suri – a propulsive neo-noir that holds up a mirror to contemporary India."
- Screen Daily - "To watch SANTOSH is to feel the undeniable power of a discerning, resonant case study."
- Los Angeles Times - "An indelible portrait of a woman embracing power for the first time only to face disillusionment of the worst kind."
- Reeling Reviews - "If ‘Training Day with more grey areas’ sounds dull, it’s anything but."
- Time Out - "The treatment is stark, unflinching, fearless, and makes it stand out..."
- The Indian Express
Awards
- British Independent Film Awards
- Jerusalem Film Festival
- Seville European Film Festival
Festivals
- Cannes Film Festival
- Toronto Int'l Film Festival
- Busan Int'l Film Festival
- Karlovy Vary Int'l Film Festival
- Thessaloniki Int'l Film Festival
- Rio de Janeiro Int'l Film Festival
- Philadelphia Int'l Film Festival
- Chicago Int'l Film Festival
- Camerimage Int'l Film Festival
- Palm Springs Int'l Film Festival
- BFI London Film Festival
- and more...