LOVE UNHURRIED

After making history as the first Marathi film to premiere at the January 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Rohan Parashuram Kanawade's Sabar Bonda had its first screening at Alliance Française de Delhi, where the writer-director shared insights about his tender queer love story set in rural Maharashtra. The film's theatre release is on September 19.

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OHAN Parashuram Kanawade's Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pear), much like its title, is a thorny-sweet tale of love between two young men in rural Maharashtra, set against the backdrop of loss and mourning.

The film, also the first Marathi film to premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize Dramatic had its first private screening in Delhi NCR at Alliance Française de Delhi recently, for a select gathering, ahead of its theatrical release on September 19.

In the film, Anand (Bhushan Manoj) and his mother (Jayshri Jagtap) are back in their ancestral village from Mumbai, for a 10-day mourning period after his father's death. Back home, the 30-year-old faces relentless questions about marriage and his future, while reconnecting with his estranged, still unmarried childhood friend Balya (Suraaj Suman). Together, they navigate grief, memories, and the pressures of expectations.

Part imaginary, part autobiographical, Kanawade's debut feature is, in many ways, a recounting of his father's demise in 2016, while navigating the pressures of questions about marriage and the future, much like Anand. “I was frustrated and seeking escape...I thought, what if I had a friend in this village? I could have just sneaked out with him and avoided the pressure,” Kanawade shared about the beginnings of the film during a post-screening conversation with filmmaker Shaunak Sen.