Gondhal review: India’s Oscar entry is a slow-burn ritual drama

Santosh Davakhar’s Gondhal is not a conventional wedding drama. Set around a Maharashtrian Jagran Gondhal, the film turns an all-night folk ritual into a pressure cooker of secrets, patriarchy and power. Now carrying the label of India’s official entry at the 2027 Oscars, it is likely to reach a far wider audience than most Marathi rural dramas.

The Oscar tag matters because it takes a regional story and places it on a national stage. Hindi film fans who might otherwise miss the film now have a reason to look beyond the usual Bollywood calendar and see how Marathi cinema is using folk material. Gondhal is deeply folk: it opens with a long, roughly 25-minute continuous shot in which Bhivaba, an elderly gondhali performer, walks with his grandson Vishnu by lantern light toward a wedding.

A long walk into the village

In that opening stretch, Vishnu asks about the gondhal, the family’s sacred lamp and his absent mother. Bhivaba answers patiently, but his own story stays mostly withheld. The film uses this walk to explain the belief behind the ritual: Lord Khanderaya is thought to visit the ceremony and remove obstacles from the newlyweds’ path. By the time the camera pulls back to show the Patil household, the village’s hierarchy is already visible.

That promise—of divine help clearing obstacles—turns quietly ironic as the night unfolds. The real obstacles are not supernatural. They are the people at the wedding.

Power, performance and music

The central characters take their time revealing themselves. Suman, the bride played by Ishita Deshmukh, carries a secret and wants to make her own choices in a world where others have mostly decided for her. Sarjerao, the village chief’s son, is used to getting his way. Anandrao, the groom, appears gentle and does not fit the village’s tough masculine image.

Kishor Kadam anchors the film as Bhivaba. His restrained presence gives the drama an emotional centre. The film’s strongest passages belong to the live gondhal performances: Ilaiyaraaja’s music works best when the singing and percussion are allowed to carry the tension on their own. The background score is less successful when it tries to nudge the mood.

Where the screenplay slips

Gondhal is more atmospheric than tightly written. Some events feel convenient, pushed by plot rather than character. The long ritual sequences are culturally rich, but their repetition slows the story, and a tighter edit could have kept the mood while moving the conflict along. The final stretch builds tension, but not every twist lands with the force it should.

Still, the film offers clear rewards for patient viewers:

• The opening 25-minute shot is a striking piece of world-building.
• The live folk music and ritual performances have a texture that background scores rarely match.
• Kishor Kadam and Ishita Deshmukh give the film its emotional weight.
• The story shows how easily authority can be mistaken for respect.

Bottom line

Gondhal will suit viewers who want a slow-burning rural drama more than a twisty thriller. It does not always keep its grip, but it has a distinct identity and a clear view of how power hides behind tradition and faith. As India Today’s review puts it, the film asks “what happens when the obstacles are the people themselves.”

Source: India Today