Sabar Bonda Movie Review | Anupama Chopra | THR India

Anupama Chopra reviews Rohan Parashuram Kanawade's debut feature "Sabar Bonda" for The Hollywood Reporter India, describing it as an exquisite tale of loss, love, and longing. Anupama explains how the film uses the cactus pear—prickly on the outside, sweet inside—as a perfect metaphor for its central gay love story set in rural Maharashtra. She praises Kanawade's delicate and sensitive storytelling, following Anand who returns to his village for his father's 10-day mourning rituals and rekindles a relationship with his childhood friend Balya.

Anupama commends the film's extraordinary portrayal of ordinary people, highlighting Bhushaan Manoj and Suraaj Suman's unvarnished performances, along with Jayshri Jagtap as Anand's compassionate mother. She notes how cinematographer Vikas Urs crafts the tale with stillness and respectful distance, while delivering intimate close-ups when the men are together. Drawing parallels to T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets and C. Prem Kumar's Meiyazhagan, Anupama describes Sabar Bonda as a lyrical, languid journey of self-discovery and belonging that offers hope even in difficult circumstances. She strongly recommends not missing this film.