‘Satluj’ Review: A Moving Indian Activist Drama Pulled From Circulation
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- Honey Trehan's "Satluj" stars pop star Diljit Dosanjh as bank manager-turned-activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who investigates extrajudicial police killings, mass cremations of the "missing," and state-sanctioned brutality in 1990s Punjab.
- Originally titled "Punjab '95," the film was removed from the Toronto International Film Festival lineup in 2023 without explanation and faced government demands for over 120 cuts before its eventual streaming release.
- "Satluj" premiered globally on Indian streaming platform Zee5 on July 3rd, but was pulled for Indian viewers within 48 hours and for international audiences the following week.
- Since its removal, the film has seen rogue community screenings across India, with the review noting that "the medium has become the message" — engaging with the film now mirrors the act of searching through buried records.
- The 164-minute film takes a "hagiographic" but emotionally wrenching approach, with Dosanjh — whose recent North American tour landed him on "The Tonight Show" — delivering a performance the review calls "liturgical."
- "Satluj" touches on the Khalistan separatist movement only in passing, opting for a broader critique of state overreach that avoids the political perspective of its victims in order to remain "more palatable to mass audiences."
Why it matters: The film's removal from Zee5 within 48 hours of its July 3rd release — despite surviving over 120 government-mandated cuts — means domestic audiences now depend on rogue community screenings to see the uncut version, turning the censored film itself into an act of civic engagement with suppressed Punjabi history.
