Cactus Pears – (2025)

Cactus Pears (Marathi: Sabar Bonda) is a 2025 romantic drama film, written and directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade in his feature directorial debut. A co-production between India, Canada and the United Kingdom, the film centres on Anand (Bhushaan Manoj), a man from the city who returns to his hometown following a death in the family, and reconnects romantically with his childhood friend Balya (Suraaj Suman)

Plot

Anand works in a Mumbai call centre, but when his father dies, he must spend ten days in his family’s rural village in western India to complete his filial duties.

Anand’s parents have no problem with the fact that their son is gay, but the village is another world, where homosexuality is not acknowledged and Anand is relentlessly pressured to explain why he is not married. However, it is also the home of his childhood friend Balya, a local farm worker facing similar issues. The pair reconnect and their intimacy blossoms.

Details

Run Time – 112 Min

Rotten Tomatoes – All Critics – 94% All Audience – 0% (as Sept 2025)

Release Date USA November 21, 2025

Official Website HERE

Cast

Bhushaan Manoj as Anand
Suraaj Suman as Balya
Jayshri Jagtap as Suman

Release and Reception

Cactus Pears had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on 26 January 2025 in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section, in which it won the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic. It is also slated to screen at the 2025 Göteborg Film Festival.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 12 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.0/10.

Wendy Ide of Screen Daily reviewed, “Cactus Pears is a subdued, sensitive study of bereavement and the quietly radical act of being queer in a rural, lower-class Indian community.” IndieWire’s Ritesh Mehra wrote that the film “is commendable in how it demonstrates the unique silent pains borne by many queer men who, despite their male privilege, have to fight to remain unattached (same sex marriage is illegal in India), to not be infantilized, and to realize relationships longer lasting than quick clandestine sex.”

Tatsam Mukherjee at The Wire (India) remarked “Kanawade’s film goes full monty, by addressing queer folks in Indian villages – places often even without the vocabulary for it. But it steers clear of the hostility and venom one might expect to arise from such a situation. Sabar Bonda, in fact, goes in the other direction by shining a light on the cowardice of society – especially while facing someone who owns their sexual identity.”

The film won the Audience Award for narrative features, and Bhushaan Manoj won the award for Best Performance, at the 2025 Inside Out Film and Video Festival.