I watched Diljit Dosanjh's Satluj and here is what I felt!
- By Izay Ayesha -
- Jul 08, 2026
I am not a Sikh, I am not a Punjabi and I am not an Indian and I have never spent even an hour in a police station for some reason but Satluj, Diljit Dosanjh’s biggest movie so far (biggest because he apparently did it for a cause), just gave me a sleepless night and I feel I must write about this must-watch film.
As everyone knows that the movie first titled ‘Punjab 95‘ spent around three to four years stuck with India’s Central Board of Film Certification which demanded over 127 cuts, missed a Toronto International Film Festival 2023 premiere due to “objection from Indian authorities”, then debuted on OTT on July 3, 2026 under this new title ‘Satluj’ only to be taken down within 48 hours following a government directive citing “lack of certification and security concerns”.
What this film tells is the story of Jaswant Singh Khalra, a normal bank employee who exposed extra-judicial killings and disappearances in Punjab during the 1990s era where families waited for their loved ones for years either to no avail or to know that he/she was cremated as an unclaimed body. Killed for no reason and cremated like a nobody.
He confronts the police, confronts the government, meets the families of missing persons and despite threats to his life and family, documents the crimes committed by the police and state and turns his search for a friend into a movement and all of this happened in 90s, no social media, no smartphones and no proper media coverage. You can be a hero and still be depicted as a villain on mainstream media.
The film follows Jaswant Singh as he he specifically begins looking into the disappearance of a missing man Sukhdev Singh and then an old woman Gurpej Kaur. While doing that he stumbled upon municipal cremation records and discovered evidence of thousands of unidentified bodies secretly cremated by police between 1984-1994.
Singh eventually documents over 25,000 cases of illegal killings, disappearances and secret cremations and starts his fight for justice bringing him at odds over the whole state apparatus but especially the police led by mastercop Bitta (played by Kanwaljit Singh), whose character is based on then-DGP K.P.S. Gill and Sugga (played by Suvinder Vicky), who is portrayed as a leader of a rogue police posse.
Jaswant even takes the issue to Canada and presents his findings to the Canadian House of Commons, there he was advised to apply for asylum but he refused.
The way this film shows police and state’s ruthless attitude towards innocent people looking for their loved ones, the manipulation of medico-legal records, just to get promotions, and the way Sugga says that if he is made accountable for 25000 killings, he will make it 25000 and 1, is shown with such depth in the movie that you can’t help but connect with them.
Gurpej Kaur’s case who is herself killed while looking for her son Kirpal, the way a police officer Satnam’s family was killed and then Jaswant’s own case just kills your soul. The fact that it was based on true events makes it even more disturbing.
Cinema has no dearth of films on extrajudicial killings but this one stands apart not only because Diljit Dosanjh acts well (he always does) but because the film’s execution, editing and overall story-telling is so powerful that one gets involved deeply into the narrative.
Jaswant Singh Khalra was indeed a brave person who stood up to police brutality and a rigged system and his story was the one that should be told especially when India is telling stories of people who just won some wrestling competitions (Dangal), fictitious heros (Dhurandhar) and people who just spewed venom for political gains (Swatantrya Veer Savarkar) but as Diljit said, his (Jaswant’s) voice was silenced then and is again silenced, now by the current Indian regime.
Rating 4.5/5