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| Santosh Photo: BBC, BFI, Razor Film Produktion GmbH, Haut et Court, Santosh Film Ltd |
British-Indian director Sandhya Suri's Indian set neo-noir, Santosh, is an atmospheric story about a young widow whose husband has died policing a riot. The only way for Santosh Saini (Shahana Goswami) to keep a roof over her head and be self-sufficient is to accept the offer to inherit her late husband's job and rank. Swapping her life of domesticity for a job as a woman police officer in India's northern badlands, she soon falls under the influence of Geeta Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), a female inspector. Their investigation into the murder of a low-caste girl exposes Saini to unrelenting corruption, and before too long she has to answer for her own complicity in an investigation thwarted by duplicitous agendas.
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| Sandhya Suri Photo: courtesy of Oxfam |
Santosh is Suri's narrative feature début, and was developed with the support of the Sundance Screenwriters’ and Directors’ Lab. Her previous films include the documentary I For India (2005), and the narrative short film, The Field (2018). Between these, Suri directed the BFI commissioned documentary Around India With A Movie Camera (2017). The project gave Suri access to the BFI's national archive, and using scenes from films shot during Britain’s colonial rule of India, she documented the story of colonialism seen through the camera’s lens.
In conversation with Eye For Film, Suri discussed the challenge of emphasising the empowerment journey in a narrative that's traditionally structured around specific tropes. She also reflected on her personal connection to India and her own transformational journey.
Paul Risker: Coming from a documentary background, I have the feeling that fiction and reality, documentary and narrative are intimately connected in this film.
Sandhya Suri: It's interesting, because when fiction filmmakers sometimes take a documentary approach, it tends to be with a really energetic camera, where it's moving a lot. When learning to shoot documentaries, we're just trying to hold the camera steady all the time.
With Santosh, it is about documentary, but not in the way that maybe fiction will normally take a documentary style — it's coming from the other side of it. Moving into fiction, it was about using all the rigour and the economy of cinema, and the tools of the craft to work precisely. With the sound, image and mise-en-scène, I try to be as economical as I can with the shots.
For me, the documentary aspect was about the level of detail that comes from the research and how the layers of details have this cumulative effect of making it feel more authentic. It has a lot to do with the local casting, the leads and non-actors, working a lot of live locations, and having a fantastic production designer who was very committed to the look of the film, especially as a genre film. But I didn't want to be in a genre film; I wanted the place to have a real-life police energy. The production designer, Devika Dave, helped me achieve that.
So, I think that's what comes from the documentary, and it's just about having a bullshit detector as we tend to do in docs — what feels true and what feels fake.
PR: For Santosh, her entry into the police force, finding a mentor and working on the murder investigation moves at a breakneck pace. There's little time for her to scrutinise her choices, and so, this idea of getting swept up by life is an integral part of the story.
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| Santosh Photo: Taha Ahmad |
SS: It's true that it's not so much about the twists and turns of the plot and how surprising they are. The idea is that you're by her side, immersed in this empowerment journey she's on. There's just this adrenaline [rush] — she's excited, and we're excited, and there's a momentum of things that are happening.
I like the idea that when the film opens, you think you might be watching a drama about widows in India. Then, there is a gear shift, and you're in a police film, and when she goes to meet her mentor, there's another gear shift. What kept me excited about making this film wasn't about being tricksy, it was about keeping things alive and playful in the form, even though it's a slightly darker film.
PR: Santosh places more responsibility on the characters, whereas usually in these types of crime films, the story relies on narrative twists.
SS: Exactly. From the writing stage to the editing, it has always been the challenge of a film like this to work out how you make the plot work in the way that it needs to? It must satisfy, but leave enough space for the characters, the emotion and Santosh's trajectory — you have to fit it all in somehow.
PR: Rewatching Santosh, the rich thematic details that you miss on a first viewing hit me.
SS: Here's the thing, if you watch it one time, and you miss some stuff, it's still a good experience. There are a lot of details in it, and the thing about details is, even if you're not unpacking them the first time, you're experiencing them. There is a feeling which gives it this satisfying fullness, I hope.
I've had several people say they've watched it a few times and found all this other stuff on repeat viewings. It took me ten bloody years to make, so I'm glad that all those details, all that work, the ideas that were put in there always with care, and the lightest touch possible, has given it that richness.
PR: Goswami and Rajwar are perfectly cast in their respective roles. Goswami's wide broad eyes conveys Santosh's innocence, and also a natural intelligence and curiosity. Rajwar's face conveys her character's duplicity. Together it's a contrast of openness and concealment.
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| Santosh Photo: BBC, BFI, Razor Film Produktion GmbH, Haut et Court, Santosh Film Ltd |
SS: I knew I had the right actors during the chemistry test, but even before that, when Shahana walked in, it was the attitude that she gave off. Santosh is not only innocent, but there's also intelligence to her manoeuvring and ambition, watching, and figuring things out.
Sunita is known for her comic roles, so I had seen her as the comic neighbour and aunty type character. But before I'd even met her, I thought her face was right for Sharma because I felt, by watching her face, I understood her whole backstory.
Then, when I had them back in doing a chemistry test, I was convinced.
PR: The formidable question is how to change the culture of corruption and inequality? The characters are all pieces on the chess board, and in this morally ambiguous story, good and evil, right and wrong mean little. You never allow the audience to find a comfortable moral space. Instead, until the end, we must reckon with the reality that most of the characters are victims.
SS: It's so true, and maybe there will be some people that will want that cleaner version, but I was never going to make that film. There were, of course, those discussions at the Sundance Lab. "Well, you know if the system doesn't work, there must be another way." I just said, "No, I don't find that credible."
PR: Given the deeply rooted cynicism, would you describe Santosh as a neo-noir?
SS: I think so, because she accidentally slips into a situation because of the death of her husband — it's not like she chose to join the police. So, in a way, it does begin with someone somehow slipping into circumstances that then just spirals. It gets worse and worse and worse, so yes, I would call it a neo-noir.
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| Santosh |
PR: India brings a specific energy to the neo-noir, that left me thinking about the importance of the spatial in cinematic storytelling.
SS: Well, India is used as a setting a lot, but in a very exotic way in the colours and the smells. Even the grimy big city films as well, with all the slums. What I enjoyed about shooting this film was that it's a lot more than just using India. This is more about what I've seen and experienced there because I've spent a lot of time in India.
There's something about the peri-urban setting I find interesting—this small outpost, semi-rural type place, where some aspects of modernity have reached, but not all aspects in comparison to a city like Mumbai. That's why Mumbai features as an idea in the film.
PR: Is the experience of making a film a transformative one?
SS: Well, it's funny because the docs are as well. You're very deeply embroiled with something—real people and real situations. All I can say about making Santosh is I'm a very hard worker. I have a South Asian work ethic, and I'm a single mother, so, I know what it's like to really struggle.
I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and I can't believe how difficult it was to make a film, despite having graduated from film school 25 years ago. I feel proud, and it's not like waking up with trauma—it's awe.
I also feel slightly loved up about how beautiful and difficult it was. It's an overwhelming feeling, and I'm definitely a different person. If I didn't already feel it, I now appreciate how resilient I am. It's so difficult to make a film that you need to be resilient.
Santosh is released in New York by Metograph Pictures on 27 December 2024, before an expanded rollout in January 2025. Vertigo Films will release the film in the UK in 2025.
