Santosh is the United Kingdom’s official entry to the Oscars. It stars Shahana Goswami who becomes a police constable after her hubby, a cop, dies on duty. What is striking from the very start is that the state shown in the film is called Chirag Pradesh. Even the names of the towns are fictional but they don’t sound awkward. The plot is arresting and the writer-director Sandhya Suri manages to make a hard-hitting point, relevant to present-day India. On the flipside, things happen at convenience. Also, it’s predictable while the finale is a bit bizarre. Shahana Goswami, however, owns the character. She is supposed to play a helpless cop who slowly learns to fit in; she has brought this aspect out flawlessly. Sunita Rajwar has a late entry but is terrific; yet another fine performance by her after the recently released Panchayat. Others like Nawal Shukla (Inspector Thakur), Arbaz Khan (Saleem), Prashant Mishra (SI Pradeep Mundi) etc do well. All in all, Santosh is worth watching for the subject, treatment and Shahana Goswami’s bravura performance.
My rating – *** out of 5!