‘Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)’ Movie Review [Sundance 2025]: A Soft, Open-Hearted Gay Romance

Photo from Sundance Film Festival

From Jeff Nelson

Too often, cinema approaches gay love stories with tragedy, spoken more as cautionary tales. Rohan Kanawade’s Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) flips the script on queer love and tragedy, finding unexpected joy and growth in the darkness of loss. This slow-moving drama requires patience, ultimately leading somewhere beautiful and affecting.

Thirty-year-old Anand (Bhushaan Manoj) temporarily leaves his life in the city for a 10-day mourning ritual for his late father in the countryside of western India. He strikes a profound bond with a local farmer, Balya (Suraaj Suman), who struggles to remain unmarried. Anand must reconcile between his life in the city and a new relationship born in the wake of loss.

Grief manifests in different ways. The patriarch’s death rattles the family, but Anand remains stoic. Kanawade begins the story soon after the news of his passing, leaving us to learn about the deceased through his loved ones and the rural home he grew up in. Anand makes the trip with his strict mother, Suman (Jayshri Jagtap), who harps on his inappropriate black shirt which he swears is gray. The criticisms grow harsher once they reach the village, where his shirt color is only the beginning. He’s a single, 30-year-old man who works at a call center, and the majority of the family doesn’t know his sexual orientation. Anand is kept to stern rules within the 10-day ritual – no footwear, only 2 homemade meals per day, no rice, no visiting other homes, and the list goes on.

He finds comfort in reuniting with Balya, a close childhood friend he hasn’t seen in many years. They share some of their hardships, although their situations look quite different within the context of the city versus the countryside. Their palpable chemistry is clear in their conversations, where their flourishing romantic feelings for one another grow increasingly overt. Balya brings Anand cactus pears sans thorns in a doting act, symbolically giving him his vulnerable heart. Manoj and Suman handle Anand and Balya with bursting empathy, poetically captured by Vikas Urs’ intimate cinematography. We come to care greatly for these characters, who build empathy one layer at a time.

Cactus Pears is a hushed drama without much action driving the story forward. It’s a tender character study that unfolds internally. It could be more impactful with greater development within the family, but the simmering romance is genuinely purifying and beautiful. Kanawade’s approach to love and loss avoids weepy pitfalls, focusing on a whispered sense of grief that proves memorable.

Rating: 3.5/5

Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) played Sundance 2025 on January 26th, 2025.

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