India, July 7 -- I recently watched Satluj (formerly titled Punjab '95), the biographical political drama directed by Honey Trehan, chronicling the life and struggle of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, portrayed with remarkable restraint by Diljit Dosanjh. I finished the film with an overwhelming sense of restlessness. It is rare for a film to leave one emotionally unsettled long after the credits roll, but Satluj does exactly that. It is not simply cinema-it is a painful reminder of one of the darkest chapters in independent India's history.

The film does not merely narrate the story of one courageous man; it forces the audience to confront the anguish of countless families who waited endlessly for fathers, sons, brothers, an...