When the Film Federation of India (FFI) picked Gondhal as India’s official entry for the 99th Academy Awards, it immediately raised the obvious question: what made this relatively under the radar Marathi thriller stand out from a field of 33 submissions that included several far more familiar titles?
The answer may lie in what Gondhal attempts to do with something deeply rooted in Maharashtra’s cultural landscape.
Written and directed by Santosh Davakhar, the film is set in rural Maharashtra and unfolds over a single night against the backdrop of the traditional Gondhal ritual. But Gondhal is not merely the setting or a colourful cultural backdrop here. It becomes the very pulse of the story, providing the atmosphere, rhythm and dramatic progression for a thriller involving desire, obsession, deception, murder and survival.
Gondhal itself is a traditional Maharashtrian ritualistic folk performance associated with the invocation of deities including Tulja Bhavani and Renuka Mata. Traditionally performed on important occasions such as weddings and thread ceremonies, it combines devotional storytelling, music, dramatic narration, dance and intense percussion and can continue through the night. It is this increasingly charged progression of the ritual that Davakhar turns into a cinematic device.
The film follows a suffocating young bride, Suman, who uses her lover Sarjerao’s obsession in Gondhal ritual and turns sacred tradition into a deadly chess match.
What makes the premise intriguing is that the thriller and the ritual are not running on parallel tracks. They gradually become one.
The Gondhal begins as a sacred celebration, filled with music, mythology and devotion, but as the night deepens, its hypnotic rhythms and heightened atmosphere begin to mirror the psychological descent of the characters. The celebration becomes increasingly uneasy, the emotions increasingly volatile and the line between ritualistic frenzy and human madness increasingly blurred.
That transformation appears to have been central to Davakhar’s approach. He spent two years studying Gondhal performances in rural Maharashtra, seeking to understand the tradition beyond its surface appearance. The research allowed him to use the natural progression of the ritual, from reverence and storytelling to heightened musical and physical energy, as a structural element within the thriller.
That gives Gondhal a cultural identity that is difficult to separate from its storytelling.
The film also has a strong cinematic framework to support that identity. Its nocturnal setting, firelight, darkness, drums, chants and crowded ritual environment create a naturally claustrophobic world in which secrets and tensions can unfold almost unnoticed. Ilaiyaraaja’s music adds another important layer to the atmosphere, while Amalendu Chaudhary’s cinematography works extensively with the visual contrast between darkness and available light.
And perhaps that is what makes Gondhal an unusual Oscar submission. Its appeal is not based simply on being a film from a regional industry, nor merely on presenting a piece of Indian culture to an international audience. It takes a very specific cultural tradition and finds a dramatic reason for that tradition to exist at the centre of the narrative.
The result is a Marathi thriller in which folklore, faith, desire and criminal deception occupy the same night and eventually become inseparable.
That may also explain why the film received recognition on the festival circuit even before its Oscar selection. Davakhar won the Silver Peacock for Best Director at the 56th International Film Festival of India in 2025, adding an important festival credential to a film that is now being seen in a much larger international context.
Because the interesting question is not simply why India chose it.
It is what happens when a centuries old Maharashtrian ritual is not used as background decoration, but becomes the heartbeat of a dark thriller about love, obsession, manipulation and survival.
