In 2012, India exploded with protests. This country was surprised at the brutal gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh. Satisfaction Producer Sandhya Suri was in India at the time, working with many non-governmental organizations. An important picture of these protests triggers this idea Satisfaction In Suri’s mind. It was a female police officer in Delhi, who was among a sea of angry women seeking justice for a rape victim (as ‘Nirbaya’ in public memory).
Women were trying to keep the women protesting back in a long queue of officers, standing outside. Suri found herself dissecting the mind of the officer – a woman who implements an order against those seeking justice for a partner. And thus, Santosh Saini described the total control by Shahna Goswami on screen with tremendous tricks – was born out of it.
Suri’s hero is not a vigilance or hero. She is a woman who is of sorrow, systemic oppression and shape of internal prejudices.
His strength is not in giving cinematic justice, but is in ending the moral weight of his choice. Maybe that’s why Satisfaction What is not “Sinkam” Or “Dabangg“Is enough for BollywoodIt is neither widespread nor depicted with broad enough brushstrokes.
A ‘hatke’ cop film
Satisfaction In May 2024, international recognition and applause were raised when the ‘United Nations’ section of the Cannes Film Festival was premiered. It also went to earn a BAFTA nomination. But now it faces uncertain fate in its country. Central film certification board (CBFC) has refused to approve the film for release in India, citing its “negative depiction” of the police.
Santosh does not offer a heroic police comfort, which is fighting against obstacles to save Dawatroden. There is no redemption for its hero. There is no catarsis.
This is a world where everyone is morally compromised with its hero Patil Lok Or Kohra does not provide. And it can be scary to see yourself reflected in any of these characters, instead of winning their base tendency, instead of crossing them in Triumph.
In a fascist society, an artist who holds a mirror in power first becomes silent. So it is not surprising that a film is like SatisfactionOne who dare to ask such a little question that when he says so low, he earns a brickbat instead of laurel from the establishment, which dare to criticize.
Satisfaction A widowed woman follows the life of Santosh Saini, in her latest condition. She takes a job of her late husband and becomes a police officer in a fictional but familiar small town, which is somewhere in the Hinderlands of Northern India. As she navigates a corrupt and turbulent flawed system, she is forced to withstand her moral boundaries.
The film examined the complexity and cruelty of the police along with religious fanaticism through the lens of class, caste and gender dynamics.
In the film, Saini’s personal loss increases her prejudice, killing a cruel custody. How his unresolved anger mirror is manipulated to repeatedly construct collective hatred towards the entire communities, such as historical injustice, such as Kashmiri Pandits or Holocaust. The cycle of violence continues – not only redirected.
Police Processes vs Bollywood Savior Complex
Satisfaction None of these realities is not the first Indian film (or series) to portray. From Sarfarosh To SimmbaThe mainstream Bollywood has long depicted police officers as righteous or evil agents working within a flawed system. Rohit Shetty One is made Complete cinematic universe with police It is fit in this mold.
Even the non-chalak tale in India, which tries in nuances, cannot escape this uncontrolled stereotype-this Article 15, Delhi Crime, Patal Lok, or even the roar (which manages to separate a lot of gender and racist trops).
Contrary to the glory of shiny heroes and such stories, Satisfaction The Savior forbids the imagination of the Nobel Police along the complex and thus align more accurately with reality.
A recent report on policing in India published by Lokniti-Csds and general cause reveals a recent report on policing, torture and harassment of extraordinary violence among police personnel.
A surprising 30 percent of the police personnel conducted a survey, believing that the third degree methods are justified in severe cases, while nine percent also support their use for minor offenses.
18 percent of police personnel believe that Muslims are “naturally prone” to commit crime. The victims of torture are mainly poor and marginalized, including Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, illiterate people and slums.
at a time when Police cruelty It is well documented-in India and globally, a film is like Satisfaction One becomes an essential contribution in the national discourse. Therefore, it is understandable that the state which encourages such behavior in its law enforcement machinery is determined to maintain the illusion of infallibility.
Male gaze
Through Suri’s lens, Satisfaction In addition, the male deal with a simplicity that is both powerful, complex and humorous in some ways. This is already a riveting method of treating a subject to deal with several times (although failed). This is the scene where Santosh chews and hates his food for the hatred that will not stop staring at him. It is not only effective, but also freshly irreversible.
This male rejects gaze without playing with his rules. Santosh Saini is far from the idea of a strong woman of Bollywood, who fits neatly in a man’s shoes.
She does not come to claim punching, roar and dominance with cruel force as her male counterparts and moves away with a clear discretion. Even her patron (and manipulator), Geeta Sharma -Sunita Rajwar with Aplomb – a woman, and a queue on it. Sharma also explains this idea that gender diversification or inclusion can disrupt the tangled hierarchy alone.
At every step of the road, the film refuses to glorify the power that is unaware of the violence that she claims to fight.
When an already shelter Santosh is given a bribe in a public park trying a bribe while trying a moral police, his face lights up. She hesitates to see her senior, whose silence approval gives him a calm sense of power. It is a crowd played in Microxpress measured on Goswami’s face. This is the first wave of a large tsunami about washing through him later in the story, causing destructive destruction.
Some mainstream films that had a female police hero – like – Mardani (Literally translated as a ‘masculine woman’) and Singham Again (Where we meet ‘Lady Singham’)-Do not challenge this hyper-masculine police fundamentalist. They simply wrap it on a female body, consider strength as a gender dress, instead of a construction. Here is the place where Santosh refused.
Unlike Rani Mukherjee Shivani Shivaji Roy Or Deepika Padukone’s Lady Singham– Where Power is designed as an expansion of manhood – Santosh Saini highlights the decline that feminism only wins by keeping women in power.
The maradani brand of non-internal feminism does not address systemic issues. This withdraws Mukherjee’s personal views, who slap their addicts about women or learn martial arts for self -defense.
The mainstream ideas of the “strong woman” in -charge often strengthen the idea that a woman must be filtered through a masculine lens to legalize the strength of a woman. They believe that the only way to the Command Authority for a female policeman is traditionally “mardana“Aggression or bizarre matcheso. It not only fails to challenge the status quo, but only reflects patriarchy in a separate uniform.
Instead of leveling him in a trop, Santosh allowed his hero’s weaknesses to co -existence with his corruption.
It departs Goswami’s layered depiction of Santosh Saini’s traditionally in the mainstream Indian cinema from the masculine ‘strong lady’ trop. Satisfaction A protagonist presents, whose descendants mark uncontrolled aggression and match -related pictures – his moral decline rather than his empowerment.
Incredible truth
Satisfaction In January 2025, India was to get a dramatic release, but about four months a year, the film remains in Limbo. It did not face any issue during the script approval and India’s largest cinema series also agreed to distribute it. Thus, CBFC’s refusal can now only be read only as another expression of systemic corruption that creates crux Satisfaction,
Suri has expressed his disappointment, called the decision “heartbreaker”. She knows that the topics of the film are not new to Indian cinema.
She understands, however, that a mavric deficiency (read mardi or mardani) police acted as a proxy for us – the audience who prefers to imagine himself as Saviyur – is the bit that is the most difficult to digest.
The censor board provided a long list of the demanded cuts, so that they were “impossible” to apply without changing the story. Although the legal restrictions prevent Suri from disclosing the nuances, they described them as several pages, which are spreading several pages, reducing the main themes of the film. If it was about clear violence, as the board’s justification suggestions, one might ask why hyper-integrated action films did vigilant justice, which passes through unheard.
Due to no appeal procedure available within CBFC, the only support is left. But the legal battle is slow and difficult, and even if Satisfaction Eventually, victory must have been damaged.
Delaying the release of a film itself is a form of censorship, one way to ensure that uncomfortable true films never reach the public when they are the most relevant.
We have the only consolation in the knowledge that by trying to suppress SatisfactionCBFC has only increased its message. Whether it is on Mubi or through the underground channels of Indy CineFiles (read Torrents), the film remains accessible in India. The fight against censorship, like a fight against systemic injustice, is long and tired. But as Suri has sworn, she will not leave her film. Nor should we do.
(The author is an independent film, TV and pop culture journalist, who has been feeding the great sucking mav since 2010. This is an opinion. The idea expressed above is his own. The Quint Neither endors nor responsible for them.)
