American TV has pretty much beaten to death the police procedural drama thanks to overexposure to the infallible, unimpeachable justice system fantasies of Dick Wolf, the self-righteous heroes of “Blue Bloods” and and the scientist sleuths of “C.S.I.”

That’s why the British-made Indian policing drama “Santosh” hits you like a wet slap.

Writer-director Sandhya Suri conjures up a mystery thriller about policing, sexism, class and caste that gets into the dark corners of India and the overwhelmed, hidebound and corrupt culture of those entrusted to keep the peace.

Suri, who cut her filmmaking teeth on documentaries, found a great hook to hang her tale on — the country’s peculiar “laws of compassion” that allow the widows of fallen policemen to take their place on the force. Through a woman who takes up that offer, we see a broken system from the inside and watch a politically-charged murder case investigated, blundered and manipulated by figures who range from ineptly misogynistic to sinister.

The widow Santosh Saini (Shahana Goswami of the “Rock On!” Bollywood franchise) doesn’t have any good options when her husband is killed in the line of duty. Coming from a poor family, rejected by venal in-laws and about to lose her police-force-provided housing, she takes the “inherited” job offered by the Machogar P.D.

Santosh will become Constable Saini via on-the-job training. Unarmed, she will work with other female cops (mostly) who are given the delicate jobs pertaining to female complaints and crime victims (escorting a woman’s corpse to the morgue) and try to put the fear of the law into men who misuse and abuse women.

Everything from taking indecent liberties to breach of promise falls under their jurisdiction, where threats, abuse and bribes are part of the job, but carrying firearms isn’t.

Santosh watches and listens, and when a poor laborer from the Dalit caste tries to report a missing daughter, she is the only one who hears and sees him. Her best efforts can’t make the lazy, disorganized, dismissive louts of her department even file a report.

When the missing teen turns up dead in a well, there’s hell to pay — thanks to the media. Her aloof, classist boss (Nawal Shukla) is transferred. As no-nonsense older-woman detective (Sunita Rajwar) elbows her way in and takes on the case, Santosh now has a mentor and a champion.

With a bit of basic detecting, a veiled threat or two and some unveiled ones, they’re out to get their man, no matter how little the men who work with them care about another Indian rape and murder victim.

Writer-director Suri takes pains to showcase the overwhelming nature of policing a nation of 1.4 billion and counting. But she doesn’t flinch from highlighting “It’s not our job” (in Hindi with English subtitles) cops and the “rape culture” that men in and out of uniform callously and carelessly tolerate.

All of the women police officers depicted are more or less united in opposition to this ingrained attitude, with Inspector Sharma (Rajwar) their avenging angel.

But the injustices can seem too deep, too broad and too numerous for a few women to challenge.

“We’re illiterate,” the mother of the dead girl hisses at Santosh. “Isn’t that why the police are deaf to us?”

The hardest lesson comes from the seasoned detective, who arrives as a white knight but seems more tarnished and complicated than that the longer this case goes on.

“There are two kinds of ‘untouchables’ in this country. The ones people don’t want to touch. And the ones who can’t be touched.”

If that universal “law” doesn’t wipe the smugness off any First World viewer thinking “This is just how policing is in the Third World,” nothing will.

Goswami’s understated performance drives this brilliant debut feature, a sometimes silent observer who can barely register shock at some of what she sees and experiences. Goswami lets us see that Constable Santosh Saini knows how things have been and that they probably will continue to be, no matter what she and anybody she works with does.

Rating: R, violence

Cast: Shahana Goswami, Sunita Rajwar, Nawal Shukla and
Arbaz Khan.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Sandhya Suri. A Metrograph release.

Running time: 2:08