By John Corrado
The 2025 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 24th to May 4th in Toronto
In their documentary Marriage Cops, co-directors Shashwati Talukdar and Cheryl Hess take us inside a police station in northern India, where a team of female officers provide marriage counselling to couples experiencing marital problems. It’s a way for wives to get support and help in a society heavily focused on siding with the men.
The film mainly serves as a verite portrait of these sessions, focusing on three different couples seeking help, allowing us to observe the often tense meetings. What stands out is the no-nonsense way that the female officers speak to the husbands. Leading the group is Officer Sandhya, whose approach to every situation is tough but fair.
The officers mainly serve as intermediaries between spouses. Some of the women offer disturbing reports of their husbands beating them, but the situations are complicated by children being involved. There is an obvious human interest quality to watching these sessions unfold, but Marriage Cops is equally interesting and worthwhile as an exploration of gender roles and relationships within modern Indian society, and how that is possibly shifting in a culture rooted in tradition.
Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)
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