Sabar Bonda (also titled Cactus Pears) follows two men whose growing closeness unfolds during a ten-day mourning period in a rural Indian village. Written and directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, the Marathi-language film brings romance, bereavement, family pressure and village life into the same intimate story.
What is Sabar Bonda about?
Anand works at a call center in Mumbai. After his father dies, he returns to his ancestral village for the ten-day mourning period. There, relatives press him to marry. He reconnects with Balya, a childhood friend who is now a farmer and faces similar expectations.
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As the two spend time together, their friendship becomes intimate. The mourning period gives the story a defined span: Anand and Balya must confront what their connection might mean once he leaves the village. The romance is shaped by family obligation and community life, but the film is not simply a story about hiding. Its rural setting and the everyday rhythms around the characters are central to how their relationship takes shape.
The official synopsis describes the story as set in rural India. The film is in Marathi and has a listed runtime of 112 minutes in the Sundance catalogue. Sundance’s film listing identifies the cast as Bhushaan Manoj, Suraaj Suman and Jayshri Jagtap.
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Is Sabar Bonda based on a true story?
Kanawade has described the film as semi-autobiographical. He told Sundance that after his father died, he returned to his ancestral village, where relatives urged him to marry without knowing he was gay. He turned that difficult experience into a tender story centered on a romance between two men. The characters and events are presented as a film narrative, not as a claim that every detail happened to the director.
In a Sundance interview, Kanawade explained why he wanted to tell a story rooted in both city and village experience:
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“My experience as a gay man growing up in a Mumbai slum is vastly different from that of my upper-class friends.”
“Repeated portrayals have created a perception that queerness is only an urban ‘phenomenon.’ I wanted to craft a story from my own city and rural experiences and represent rarely portrayed lower-class and rural queer characters and their existence with honesty.”
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Those remarks describe Kanawade’s perspective and artistic aim, rather than a complete account of queer life in India. They help explain why the film’s rural and working-class setting matters: Anand’s life is not treated as an urban story temporarily displaced to a village, and Balya’s experience is not reduced to a symbol of rural isolation.
What did Sabar Bonda win at Sundance?
The film won the 2025 Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. The official film site reproduces the jury’s citation, attributed to Ava Cahen, Wanuri Kahiu and Daniel Kaluuya: “We award the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic to Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears).” The jury also praised it as a “tender film” with an intimate point of view. The official film site lists additional festival selections and awards.
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- The disk DOES NOT have Italian audio and subtitles.
Kanawade wrote and directed the film. Sundance lists it as a 2025 production from India, the United Kingdom and Canada. The festival catalogue provides its cast, language and runtime details.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where can you watch Sabar Bonda?
Availability depends on territory and date. Strand Releasing lists US theatrical distribution and licensing information, but that does not establish a current streaming service or home-video release. The Sundance online festival window shown in its 2025 listing has expired. For the most useful current information, check the official film site and Strand Releasing; neither source, as cited here, confirms a streaming platform.
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