UK Asian Film Festival 2026: Shadowbox

Writer: Saumyananda Sahi from a story by Tanushree Das

Directors: Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi

Although Shadowbox, directed by Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi and scripted by the latter, has elements of a thriller at heart the film is a domestic drama.

In the suburbs of Kolkatta (formerly Calcutta) Maya (Tillotama Shome) has married beneath her social station. Although Maya is college educated and from an affluent family her husband Sundar (Chandan Bisht) is a humble infantryman. As if to confirm the reservations of Maya’s family, Sundar has returned from army service with Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) making him incapable of holding down a job.

Maya supports her family by way of various menial jobs whilst caring for Sundar and arranging job interviews for him. Debu (Sayan Karmakar), the child of the marriage has vague aspirations to become a dancer, but lacks parental guidance and is mortified when his father, in a confused state, makes a public exhibition of himself.  The chaotic situation is made worse when Sundar disappears and is eventually located in the local police station. Sundar’s drinking buddy has been found murdered making Sundar the prime suspect.

The challenges facing the Indian working class are represented by Maya. Maya is in constant motion rushing from one dead-end job to another including a revolting poultry farm. Tillotama Shome brings a defiant dignity to the role, there is a sense Maya, after facing years of criticism from her family, takes adversity for granted.

Chandan Bisht gives a heart-breaking interpretation of mental illness. In the family home Sundar is an irritant, sitting around in his underwear gobbling snacks and drinking booze. In the wider community he is an object of derision, mocked for forcing his way into games of football played by the local teenagers and capable of undertaking only eccentric jobs such as farming frogs for use by local universities.

Bisht plays Sundar as someone with the emotional outlook of a child but the shame of an adult. He is clearly mortified that his wife has to arrange job interviews for him and speak on his behalf and Bisht’s face is a constant mask of confused desperation as Sundar tries to overcome his mental obstacles.

The community in which the family is based is hardly supportive. Gossips are nastily judgemental in assessing their neighbours, describing one as having her doors and legs always open. There is a defeatist atmosphere in which death is, more than once, described as preferable to life. It is opined husbands are best when they are dead and there is general agreement it would have been better for his family if Sundar had died whilst in army service rather than returned to be a liability.

The pessimistic attitude may influence the actions of the characters. Debu displays evidence of being corrupted by his experience of violence and is seen wordlessly moving away from his dance practice and undertaking vigorous shadowboxing.  Sundar may have accepted the view his family would be better off without him and perceives imprisonment (for a crime of which he may not be guilty) to be a self-sacrificing way of ensuring they have one less problem to worry about. In gaol Sundar seems serene as if being away from daily contact with his family and community has eased his anxieties.

The thriller aspects of Shadowbox are not developed. At an early point in the film Maya is outraged by unsympathetic bureaucrats when trying to find a job for her husband. The opportunity to push this into full Kafkaesque paranoia, during the confrontation with the opportunistic policemen who have arrested Sundar is, surprisingly, not taken. No effort is made to establish traditional thriller elements such as alternative suspects and clues.

Shadowbox features very strong performances and provides a sympathetic portrayal of mental illness.  But the thriller aspects of the story are not given any priority so the story meanders through grim domestic drama incidents without reaching a cathartic conclusion.

Shadowbox is screening at the 28th UK Asian Film Festival.