MELBOURNE: Diljit Dosanjh doesn’t play it safe in Satluj. And that’s exactly why the film was removed from ZEE5 within 48 hours of release.Directed around the life and disappearance of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, Satluj was never meant to be just entertainment. It’s a confrontation with a chapter of Punjab’s history that many would prefer to keep buried. The content is being debated, discussed, and politics seems to be taking over.
Satluj follows Khalra’s investigation into thousands of illegal cremations and custodial killings during the 1990s insurgency in Punjab. Dosanjh plays the activist with a restraint that’s rare for him. No theatrics. No punchlines. Just quiet resolve as he documents, files cases, and ultimately pays the price.The film doesn’t glorify violence. It shows the cost of asking questions in a time when silence was survival.
This is Diljit at his most grounded. Very different from Main Vapas Ayunga. He sheds the pop-star charm and leans into the weight of the role. The supporting cast stays low-key, which works — the focus never drifts from Khalra’s mission.The direction is journalistic more than cinematic. Handheld frames, muted colours, courtroom and gurudwara scenes that feel lived-in. It won’t win you over with big montages. It wins you over with urgency.
The movie is so hard-hitting that some people are watching it in instalments. The content which Kalra uses is sourced from records of three cremation grounds. There are allegations the 20,000 number of alleged encounter cremations are exaggerated. In an interview to Sydney-based Kathe Sunte Radio, Khalra’s lawyer Rajvinder Singh Bains counters this by saying more evidence of such cremations have been detailed in recent years by other sources.
In one Channel (YouTube) debate a prominent speaker says the cops had no other alternative of what is depicted as the system then had collapsed and Khalra was an overground Khalistan supporter as a lawyer. A friend who saw the movie said it was not balanced as thousands of cops and others were also killed by the militants. The banning of the movie (or removal) has generated massive interest in the movie.
The focus of the movie (first half) is the complete collapse of the rule of law amid militant and state violence. People just vanished (cremated) as unclaimed corpses (laawaris lashae) as the movie depicts. A dark chapter in a state steeped in history.
Within two days of its ZEE5 release, Satluj was taken down. Reason: “review”. Unofficial reason: the subject matter. Politicians, activists, and legal bodies immediately called it censorship. Others argued the film was “sensitive” given current tensions. Sukhbir Badal said “Punjab deserves to confront its past with honesty.” Diljit posted: “I challenge the darkness.”Post-removal, reports emerged of screenings being planned at gurudwaras — direct to the people. Overseas, it has been shared unknown times and is a hot topic in the Punjabi, Indian, and South Asian diasporas. Never before a movie has been talked so much. Mainly, a whats app tsunami.
Satluj is not perfect. The pacing drags in the second half, and it assumes you already know some context about the 90s in Punjab. But it’s important. In an era of sanitized biopics, this one refuses to look away. It asks: what happens when a state fears its own history? And what happens when an artist refuses to stay quiet? Whether you agree with its politics or not, Satluj is the kind of film that starts conversations — which is probably why it was pulled so fast.
Facing truth can be confronting and curbing it fuels curiosity. Rule of law is a must in a democracy. Things have to be dealt with within the parameters of law flowing from the country’s constitution, however hard it might be. A vital test for a mature democracy.
The Australian Human Rights Commission describes human rights as – “Human rights are standards that governments around the world have agreed to meet so that everyone can live a safe, free and dignified life. They belong to all of us, no matter who we are, where we come from, what we look like or what we believe.”
No doubt, the issue needs a closure. A truth and reconciliation commission (as in South Africa) can be one option. But with Punjab state elections not far away, the muddy waters of Satluj will throw up much more for the power battles.
Cast…
Lead Actor: Diljit Dosanjh as Jaswant Singh Khalra; Director: Honey Trehan; Producers: RSVP Movies + MacGuffin Pictures; Previous Title: Punjab ’95 — withdrawn from Toronto International Film Festival lineup in 2023 due to censorship issues.
Rating – 4 &1/2 out of five.
