Liberation of Love

ROHAN Parashuram Kanawade's debut Marathi feature film, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), can be described simply and succinctly as a queer love story.

- NAMRATA JOSHI

But it packs in many intricate and overlapping layers of themes and concerns, meanings and nuances within this essential core. Having had its world premiere on January 26 at the Sundance Film Festival, the India-UK-Canada co-production won the Grand Jury award in the World Cinema Dramatic category on January 31.

Like the fruit that it is named after, Sabar Bonda, is about the benevolence that accompanies the many barbs that life can throw at us. It's about hope and healing one can find in the midst of anguish and distress and about the continuities that come along with the finales in the eternal cycle of life and death.