Soni [Sub: Eng]

Proves the ideal vehicle to explore a wide variety of issues related to gender battles in contemporary Indian society, even while following many of the genre tropes that make police dramas so universally beloved.

With an intelligent, subtle script and camerawork so organically natural one doesn't immediately realize that each scene is shot in one take, the film draws on a subject much in the news and spins it into a multilayered yet low-key study...

Ayr doesn't allow the story to devolve into sermonizing or finger-wagging. He keeps the film on-track, and Ohlyan and Batra form its soul.

Its willingness to tackle hugely relevant subject matter, paired with an unassuming script that finds space for some darkly comic bits that filter in through everyday exchanges, and a cast that brings it to life in a grounded, believable fashion.

Soni is a beautifully shot and meticulously crafted drama which focuses on the daily struggles faced by women in India.

I'm unsure if any version of this script could have lifted the lifeless decision to shoot the film in many, separate tracking long takes, because it is so overwhelmingly distracting that it renders everything going on in the film mute.

A fly-on-the-wall observation of days in these women's lives, with each scene captured in a single take. It's an artistic choice that isn't about showing off so much as immersing us in these events without editing manipulations. It works beautifully.