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Times staff writers Dakota Smith, Sandhya Kambhampati and Roger Vincent contributed to this report.

Times data reporter Sandhya Kambhampati and researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.

A policeman’s widow picks up her late husband’s badge in the noir-inflected thriller “Santosh” from British-Indian writer-director Sandhya Suri, whose background in documentary gives this moody character study slash crime procedural — and potent critique of institutional abuse in India — the air of something patiently witnessed as much as it is carefully crafted.

“Santosh,” the United Kingdom’s submission for the international feature Oscar, originally was intended as a documentary, but it became Sandhya Suri’s feature debut instead.

What did make it was British-Indian director Sandhya Suri's Hindi film Santosh, which had been picked as the UK's submission to the Oscars.