“Santosh,” the UK’s submission for the worldwide characteristic Oscar, initially was meant as a documentary, but it surely grew to become Sandhya Suri’s characteristic debut as a substitute.
Suri was researching the pervasive local weather of sexual violence in opposition to ladies for a follow-up to her Sundance award-winning documentary “I for India.” She reviewed brutal instances however felt creatively hindered by an lack of ability to dissect the violence in a significant approach. That modified in 2012, when a 22-year-old lady, Jyoti Singh, was gang raped whereas touring on a bus in New Delhi. Her eventual loss of life drew worldwide condemnation, and public protesters quickly clashed with native legislation enforcement over the dearth of authorized protections for girls. Throughout media protection of the protests, an sudden picture drew Suri’s consideration.
“It was of very angry female protesters almost spitting with hatred in the face of a female constable,” Suri remembers. “I saw that female constable, and I looked at the expression on her face, which was totally enigmatic, and I thought, ‘OK, that’s how I’m going to tell the story. I’m going to tell the story through her, because she’s on both ends of everything.’ And that just obviously then opened up a fiction, opened up genre, opened up many difficult things.”
“Santosh” follows the title character, a widow (Shahana Goswami) who inherits her deceased husband’s place throughout the police power by way of a lawful, compassionate appointment. Considered one of her first instances entails the loss of life of a younger lady from a decrease caste. As she makes an attempt to chop by way of prevalent misogyny from all sides, she is assisted by a extra senior officer, Geeta (Sunita Rajwar), who’s impressed by Santosh’s work ethic. Exploring a mentor-mentee relationship was at all times one thing Suri wished to sort out in a story challenge.
Sandhya Suri had meant to make a documentary about India’s violence in opposition to ladies, however a characteristic proved to be the extra significant method.
(Tristan Fewings/Getty Photos for BFI)
“I thought that it would be interesting to really give that female relationship its full complexity and not just make it sisterhood against a patriarchy, which I thought would be kind of boring,” Suri explains. “I just wanted to explore how love and admiration and mentorship can exist at the same time as manipulation and other darker aspects of that relationship.”
Whether or not it’s documentary or fiction, basing her work in actuality is of utmost significance to the British-born Suri. Fact be advised, the explanation the movie took so lengthy to return collectively was that Suri needed to discover the proper entry to “stand behind everything” she offered onscreen. Intriguingly, her inspirations for Santosh and Geeta got here from ladies she encountered outdoors of the police power.
“I met lots of different types of women who’ve inspired me along the years, who leave little fragments in your brain and inspire you to write something,” Suri says. “So it wasn’t particularly about women I met in the police, although I have spent a lot of time with women who’ve come to this appointment on compassionate grounds.”
Shahana Goswami stars as a widow who inherits her husband’s place on the police power in “Santosh.”
(Competition de Cannes)
Grounding the movie meant searching for nonprofessionals for roles past the skilled actors portraying her leads. She plucked one first-timer from the catering workforce. One other newcomer, who ended up within the pivotal position of the mom of the deceased woman, unknowingly launched herself whereas manufacturing was prepping to movie at a police station.
Suri remembers, “She comes out, she’s beaming at us like, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’ This big 2-meter-high Dutch director of photography, she’s not at all fazed by him. ‘Hey, what’s this? What’s this?’ And I just thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to cast her in something.’ And my producers were like, ‘Yeah, maybe the lady works in the canteen.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, I think we’re going to do the girl’s mother,’ ‘But she can’t read or write.’ ‘Oh, we’ll just learn the lines.’ So, some things were like that. For some things, we had local casting directors.”
“Santosh,” which premiered on the 2024 Cannes Movie Competition, will lastly arrive in Indian theaters Jan. 10. Suri was relieved by the response following its Indian premiere on the Mumbai Movie Competition in October however is aware of common audiences might react in a different way — particularly with the movie’s observations relating to the caste system, police corruption and Islamophobia.
Suri says main girl Goswami summed it up, remarking, “I don’t feel this is going to be received as controversial because it’s done with a light touch that it’s everywhere.”
For Suri, the film is “about a tapestry of prejudice rather than pointing fingers at anything. It acts more like a mirror for an audience to see where they sit in relation to all of those things and ask questions. So I think it’s a film that you could really go and have a good discourse about afterward in and outside of India, actually,” she says. “But whether or not someone will jump on and politicize this, I have no idea. I’m sure that will also happen, but I’m ready.”
