‘Santosh’ Review: Sandhya Suri’s Crime Thriller is Too Dependent on Tropes to Be Arresting [B-]

Some narrative cliches are universal, and the rookie cop who slowly comes to realize their superiors aren’t the good guys is a staple of the thriller genre for a reason. Writer/director Sandhya Suri may have a background in documentary filmmaking, but the filmmaker’s fiction debut Santosh doesn’t confuse the grit of her story for hard-edged realism. It’s a lowkey, more naturalistic take on a familiar crime thriller framework that touches on abuse of police power and institutionalized misogyny in Modi’s India, but uses this to update the genre’s trappings rather than subvert them. This means the film is often caught between its more heightened obligations as a thriller and the more sobering social commentary that should ground it, leaving an impression due to its execution (and sheer bleakness), but only truly satisfying as the latter. 

The most high-concept aspect of Santosh is actually a real quirk of the Indian government. Shahana Goswami stars in the titular role as a widow who is offered “compassionate employment” following the death of her police officer husband – needing to fill the gaps in the police force, she’s offered a well-paid junior role, in addition to his pension, which is in the family name. She’s not exactly thrilled to accept the position, but does so anyway, and after initially being assigned some menial duties, finds herself as one of the officers tasked with investigating the murder of a young girl. It isn’t long before she becomes complicit in a system that tortures suspects and utilizes more force towards Muslims and those of a lower caste – even if she remains belittled by her male superiors as she takes up their behaviors. 

Much like this year’s Iranian festival darling The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, Suri’s screenplay appears to be written without a domestic audience in mind, assuming that government-aligned censors likely won’t approve this for a screening in the country where it’s set. This blunts some of the harsh realism, as every now and again expository lines outlining how the caste system and societal Islamophobia are affecting the investigation awkwardly appear, diluting the impact of the dynamics which otherwise feel lived-in upon introduction. It’s especially unnecessary considering how broadly this story functions as an allegory for life in Modi’s India for which you don’t need to have a PhD in South Asian politics to be able to grasp. After all, Santosh is ushered into her job via what is openly described as a government scheme – her responsibilities in the role, and how they reflect the far-right policies of the man in charge, are so overt they could barely be described as subtext.  

I won’t pretend to be a scholar in contemporary Indian cinema, but of the populist mainstream blockbusters recently, it’s striking just how much the “one good cop” trope is recycled. One hit from earlier this summer, the Tamil-language thriller Maharaja, initially spares no ire towards its hatred for the police, openly displaying them as corrupt and antagonistic towards the communities they serve. And then, via several twists fitting for a revenge narrative, aims to have its cake and eat it, showing that many of them are motivated by a genuine desire for justice. It’s a fun, silly movie, just like many of the bombastic action movies from the Reagan era were and is enjoyable enough to decompartmentalize a worldview far more in-line with establishment right-wing thinking than the middle finger it initially appears to be.

This is the specific film my mind kept going back to while watching Santosh, if only for how it calmly tears apart these ever-prevalent tropes via utilizing them, indulging in their high-octane, fantastical nature without ever offering the same adrenaline-fueled catharsis. Its approach can sometimes come across as more of an academic subversion, rather than one rooted in a genuine knowledge and affection for genre tropes, but it hits with enough blunt force that it still proves arresting in the moment.  

Grade: B-

Santosh is in select U.S. theaters from Metrograph Pictures.