Earning a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes is a feat few filmmakers have achieved. Indeed, many of the most acclaimed films of all time have nevertheless failed to impress at least one certified critic on the website. Therefore, in the rare event that a film does earn a perfect score, it is worth exploring how it managed to win over every critic on Rotten Tomatoes that saw it. One such film is Santosh (2024), a new thriller directed by Sandhya Suri. The film, which centers on a widowed woman who takes her late husband’s place on the local police force, is the U.K.’s submission for Best International Feature at the upcoming Academy Awards. So far, all 39 critics on Rotten Tomatoes are pretty much unanimous in their praise of both the film’s technical elements and its uncompromising themes of sexism, police corruption, and caste discrimination in India.
‘Santosh’ Is a Gritty and Bleak Police Drama
Santosh was 28 when her policeman husband died tragically. She inherits the position and in turn becomes a police officer.
Release Date
December 27, 2024
Director
Sandhya Suri
Runtime
128 Minutes
Cast
Shahana Goswami
, Sunita Rajwar
, Naval Shukla
, Sanjay Bishnoi
, Shashi Beniwal
, Prashant Kumar
Writers
Sandhya Suri
Distributor(s)
Metrograph Pictures
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The film’s eponymous protagonist (played by Shahana Goswami) is a widow who replaces her husband on the police force after he is killed on the job. Santosh’s first assignment is to investigate the murder of a young girl in a rural village, and she is paired with a more senior and less idealistic female officer (Sunita Rajwar) on the case. However, Santosh soon finds out that her ability to serve justice for her community is severely limited by the systemic corruption and misogyny in the police department, which regularly engages in intimidation, lying, and even torture of suspects.
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The pairing of a cynical, morally compromised mentor with a young, upstanding rookie reminds Time Out‘s Philip De Semylen of another Oscar-winning thriller, describing Santosh as “Training Day with more grey areas.” But, as his comparison implies, what sets Santosh apart from Training Day is that the former does not completely let its protagonist off the hook for the police department’s misdeeds, despite her noble intentions.
The fact that Santosh is a woman only makes her complicity in a system that marginalizes women and fails to protect them from violence all the more heartbreaking. As The Indian Express bluntly states, “In contrast to the majority of male-driven mainstream films about cops, Santosh isn’t in awe of its protagonist. It is, first and foremost, a character study about a grieving woman trapped in institutions designed to suffocate her, and everybody else.” Sarah Vincent summarizes the film’s central message even more succinctly: “Power perpetuates itself even when the person who possesses it changes.”
‘Santosh’ Looks and Feels Like a Documentary
Dhruv Goyal of In Review Online suggests that Suri’s background in documentary filmmaking informs Santosh’s drearily mundane aesthetic: “This solemn passivity — shot cinema verité-style, unaided by any non-diegetic background score or declarative performance tics — is bound to be a sticking point for those who associate Indian cinema solely with a certain kind of testosterone-fueled, heightened dramaticism.” The film’s realistically drab, sweaty cinematography has an almost suffocating effect on the audience, reminding them that corruption and inequality are overwhelmingly pervasive in India (and beyond) and cannot be overcome as long as the status quo remains in place.
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The documentary-like vibe of the film is further reinforced by the subdued performances by the cast. Several critics note that, aside from an intensely emotional scene near the beginning of the film, Goswami’s performance consists mostly of subtle facial expressions (particularly in her eyes) to convey Santosh’s inner frustration and weariness, which more closely resembles the behavior of real people. Goyal of In Review Online describes her performance as “filled with a valuable form of hauntingly probing uncertainty,” distinct from the “loud and clear performativity” of many Bollywood films.
Regarding the rest of the cast, they are mainly played by non-actors (almost like subjects of a documentary), giving the film an even greater degree of verisimilitude and geographical specificity. There’s a naturalness to these performances that feels like a kind of world-building, making this town feel like a real, lived-in place.
Will ‘Santosh’ Win the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film?
It remains to be seen whether the unanimous praise of critics on Rotten Tomatoes will translate to an Oscar nomination and win for Santosh. 2024 was a particularly great year for international films, and it might be hard to compete with the other 14 films that are shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. From Ground Zero, Vermiglio, I’m Still Here, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, The Girl with the Needle, Universal Language, Flow, and Kneecap are all phenomenal movies (and Emilia Pérez recently gained momentum with some Golden Globe wins).
Nonetheless, the fact that Santosh achieved a rare 100% score should make it worth checking out regardless of Oscar gold. If that’s not enough, then the fact that so many critics, both inside and outside of India, all agree that Santosh is an honest and empathetic portrayal of the struggles many Indian women face on a day-to-day basis proves that this is an issue which deserves more global attention.
From Metrograph Pictures, Santosh is now playing in select theaters. It comes to Metrograph Pictures on Jan. 18, 2025; find information here.
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