There is a certain ferocity in lead actress Shahana Goswami’s lioness eyes that effectively carries her stunning new feature,Santosh,all the way to the harrowing finish line. Goswami’s exhausting journey as the eponymous female officer trying to navigate an unwieldy investigation into a woman’s rape and murder in rural India might have you holding your breath in tension. After a twisty, unnerving two hours, writer-director Sandhya Suri’sgreat police thrillerfinally lets you exhale.
There is plenty else to soak up in this suspenseful character study, keeping you guessing at almost every turn — even down to the subtle actions by its at-times unpredictable protagonist. It’s an immersive, documentary-like experience that might spike one’s blood pressure at certain points, and lose some moviegoers at other points due to the slow-burning nature of the mystery. However, patience is rewarded in this unique tale that takes us to a refreshingly different setting from the usual Western trappings of mostpolice procedurals and crime dramas.
A Feminist Police Procedural
Santosh was 28 when her policeman husband died tragically. She inherits the position and in turn becomes a police officer.
What to do after the loss of your life partner — and more than half of your life ahead of you? In the rural badlands of modern-day India, a widow still in her prime might be led to inherit her late husband’s job under such circumstances. That’s the case with the titular Santosh Saini (Goswami), a determined yet desperate woman now seemingly willing to do whatever it takes to make ends meet on her own.
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There’s also something about Santosh’s stoic demeanor that hints at more to her behind those piercing eyes. Maybe she is secretly brilliant and cut out for a career in law enforcement in more ways than the community might think. For starters, Santosh can immediately sniff out the toxic masculinity that reeks throughout her department, a male-dominated hierarchy topped by the instantly unlikable chief Thakur (Nawal Shukla).
Thakur has no problem showing his true colors when, say, Santosh brings in a young father to explain how his daughter has been missing for two days. The chief and his minions who populate police headquarters merely scoff and refuse to take the case seriously, which enrages Santosh and ultimately leads her to work on the case under the guidance of a female investigator (the sensational and scene-stealing Sunita Rajwar). Meet “Madame” Geeta Sharma, a commanding presence who leads a team of female detectives, their latest case being a search for the rapist and killer of a local low-caste girl.
A Labyrinthine Crime Mystery Requires Patience
Some of the best police procedurals out there, both on the big and small screen, take their central case to the next level and don’t just put a bow on the story once a suspect is apprehended. If you’re a moviegoer who might keep an eye on the clock as the film progresses, it might strike you that certain monumentalSantoshplot developments transpire with a hefty chunk of the film remaining. You might think everything’s wrapped up before the halfway mark.
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But just as Jack Nicholson’s P.I. gets all entangled in a seemingly simple case that gets bigger and more unwieldy inChinatown(1974), so too does Santosh once she realizes that seeking justice can be more ethically ambiguous and professionally complicated than she thought. Actions have consequences, and once Sharma and Santosh orchestrate a number of torture scenarios on their captured suspect to obtain information — and maybe even squeeze an apology out of the young man — the chaos that follows may not exactly feel like a reward to Santosh…
Director Suri has extensive documentary experience to her name, and it shines through in her gritty, immersive narrative film that lacks any sort of original score throughout virtually the entire duration. Santosh’s pursuit of the accused rapist-murderer is effectively shot with fluid handheld camerawork, jolting us at any given moment as a series of chases ensue throughout this gripping police thriller.
Santoshultimately makes profound statements about a corrupt law enforcement system for which female officers like Santosh and the elder Sharma are no match. Even in the modern world, gender clearly continues to play a heated role in power dynamics at bureaus across the globe. The lengths to which the powers-that-be go in order to maintain a more masculine order across their justice system can be soul-crushing.
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Yes, a fair amount of Santosh can be difficult to stomach, both on a physical and emotional level, but this is hard-hitting international cinema at its near-finest. Watch out for an arresting “final image” (though technically there are a few scenes after) on a train platform, where a disillusioned Santosh watches a young couple in love from the other side of the tracks. Then, a locomotive whizzes by at lightning speed, thereby only offering us quick glimpses of the couple gazing into each other’s loving eyes as they hold each other.
It’s like a filmstrip brought to life, like that iconic kissing image between Adam Sandler and Emily Watson in Paul Thomas Anderson’sPunch-Drunk Love(2002). And then, the couple Santosh watches seems to vanish into thin air, like her marriage and past life once her husband had passed away. It’s a head-spinning moment to cap off an equally thought-provoking film that urges us to bask in its universal themes and pertinent issues that are perhaps not just specific to India’s badlands. From Metrograph Pictures,Santoshis now playing in select theaters.It comes to Metrograph Pictures on Jul 27, 2025; find information here.
