The BEST COP FILM Ever Made in Hindi Language
RATING – 4/5*
SANTOSH REVIEW MOVIE TALKIES:
Let’s take a moment to recall all the best cop films ever made in the Hindi language. Zanjeer, Sarfarosh, Gangaajal, Shool, Ardh Satya, Singham, and Article 15—does the list end here? Well, you can add your other favorites too, but believe me when I say this from the depths of my heart: Santosh surpasses all those films. Interestingly, it’s a lady cop movie, and most of those films people mention as the best cop movies feature male leads. Another interesting fact is that it is not an outright Bollywood movie but an international co-production involving the United Kingdom, India, Germany, and France. This film addresses corruption and the failures of the police system while also highlighting the severe impact of casteism and Dalit issues. I don’t think any Hindi movie has ever been this diverse in the cop-drama genre, making it the best cop film ever made in our language.
Santosh is usually a male name in our society, but it is sometimes used for females too. This film features a leading lady named Santosh (Shahana Goswami), who takes on her late husband’s role as a police constable after he is murdered by an unknown group while on duty. According to the rules, the widow gets the job, and Santosh is initially content with her position, only to witness the darker side of police duty. Shortly after trying to adapt to the police system and accepting her first bribe, she is tasked with finding the killer of a teenage girl who has been brutally raped, murdered, and then thrown into a well. She works under Senior Officer Geeta Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), learning all methods of police work, and they manage to capture the perpetrator they have been pursuing. What happens next must remain a surprise, so it stuns you when you watch the film.
Sandhya Suri, as a writer, deserves a huge round of applause for discovering new ideas in the cop drama genre. The Santosh movie not only addresses corruption and the fragmented systems within the police department but also highlights social and sensitive issues like casteism, religious hatred, Dalit issues, honor killings, and human conscience. You might recognize this idea of human conscience from the Hollywood classic The Oxbow Incident (1943)—one of the earliest films to explore the conflict between human guilt and conscience, showcasing the relentless torment one can face after committing a crime—or you can find similar themes in Jolly LLB 2 or a few Malayalam classics. Santosh extends that concept, creating a beautiful compilation of multiple hard-hitting themes, knowing that even a single theme can make for a great movie. Now imagine watching 4-5 different themes blended together in a highly artistic film with virtually no flaws. Isn’t it just wonderful? Santosh achieved this—it’s unbelievable, but Santosh did it! There are at least a dozen scenes that warrant discussion for their artistic references and cinematic nuances, but sadly, I can’t spoil them here for your own good. People are typically satisfied nowadays with just one or two aesthetically pleasing scenes in any movie, yet here comes Santosh, which doubles or triples the bonanza! Hats off to the greatest scripts and screenplays ever written in this genre. Sandhya ma’am, I salute you and your brilliant work!
Shahana Goswami has truly demonstrated what acting means to all Hindi actresses. This is the best performance by any actress in 2024, and that too by a wide margin. Goswami alone has outshined the top three performances of the year in Bollywood. Sunita Rajwar is simply OUTSTANDING! I can hardly believe what I just witnessed. Sunita ma’am, what a remarkable actress you are. These Bollywood and TV serial directors have done a tremendous injustice to you and your acting finesse by assigning you mediocre roles over the years. You deserve to work in Hollywood or foreign cinema, given the way you have performed in Santosh. Not a single frame lacked substance from her. Can you believe it? I couldn’t, even while witnessing it. Since this is a hard-hitting and very realistic film, the supporting cast needed to be natural, and what fine support they all provided. A big thank you to Sanjay Bishnoi, Kushal Dubey, Nawal Shukla, Pratibha Awasthi, and others, for creating a superb acting unit as a whole.
Santosh is undoubtedly one of the best films of the year, considering the technical aspects. The cinematography and editing both deserve to be nominated in every award show and should most probably win them all. The sound design (Oh, those FM and songs in the background) and the BGM are just fabulous, and the film has great production design despite a low budget. Actually, that was necessary here since the film had to look real, and for that, the real locations and those camera angles helped it become a cinematic classic in technical aspects. Dear Sandhya Suri, where are your feet? I want to touch them, finally quenching my thirst for a CLASSIC HINDI MOVIE after years. Your vision, storytelling, presentation, and understanding of real cinema exceed expectations. You have left me speechless with at least 15 scenes in Santosh, and I don’t even remember the last time something like this happened to me after watching around 500 movies in a year. Santosh and those scenes will forever be in my memory whenever I think about any female-led film or a cop movie, and I don’t think anything can come close to this masterwork. I usually don’t like it when a movie defames our police department for the sake of fictional masala entertainers, but Suri’s realistic form of art made me realize how others have failed to understand how to use it in cinema. Santosh is truly a CINEMATIC GEM and MUST be on your MUST-SEE list right this minute.
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