Santosh

I saw this movie on the plane, and despite its tag on Singapore Air as a ‘thriller’, this is a drama through and through. Santosh is a grueling depiction of the failures of policing in rural India where gender, caste, and religion are each excruciatingly salient in every scene. This movie offers no respite, from the opening scene where the main character (who the movie is named after) is sobbing on the phone trying to reach her mother with the news that her husband has been killed, to the ensuing argument between her parents and in-laws about who is responsible for her now that he is dead. A new government initiative allows her to take her late husband’s job as a police officer, where she is thrown straight into the deep end with the rape and murder of a Dalit girl. The film is unrelenting all the way through, including what felt like an 8-10 minute extended torture sequence filled with the same quotidian anxiety as going for a run. As a female officer she has control of her own money for the first time in her life, but every person she speaks to seems to want something from her or have nothing to do with her. The film questions whether she has any more autonomy now than she did before, with motifs around gifts and eating while being watched. Eating is necessary for survival, just as Santosh seems to think that her new job is. The act of being watched by men and her superiors especially demonstrates her lack of agency as she makes the decision to live another day. Meanwhile, the gifts hint at a transactional attitude towards relationships and women especially that are reflected in the bribes that Santosh learns to take. This movie is slow, measured, and clear in its message: the police exist to maintain the status quo through threats and use of violence. The ending at the train station left me with both goosebumps and an incredible weight in my stomach.