Shakti: The Power

Story:

Shakti: The Power is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Krishna Vamsi, starring Karisma Kapoor, Nana Patekar, and Sanjay Kapoor in leading roles, with Shah Rukh Khan, Deepti Naval, Ritu Shivpuri, Anupam Shyam, and Prakash Raj, in supporting roles. The film is a remake of the 1998 film Anthahpuram, which was based on the real-life story of Betty Mahmoody. The original story of real life escape of the Betty Mahmoody is depicted in the film Not Without My Daughter (1991) which itself was based on Betty Mahmoody’s book of the same name. In the film, Shekhar and Nandini’s decision to visit his ancestral house in a rural Indian town goes awry when they find themselves embroiled in a feudal gang war and try to return home to Canada.

PLOT

Nandini is a carefree young woman who lives happily with her guardian in Canada. She is introduced to Shekhar, and they get married quite spontaneously. They are expecting a child soon. One day, Shekhar learns that his family is in trouble in India. Nandini is confused, as she believed that he was an orphan, but Shekhar explains to her that his family belongs to an extremely feudal society, and unable to bear the factions and violence in the community, he migrated to Canada. They decided to travel to India to assess the situation.

The couple arrives in Shekhar’s hometown in Bihar, where his father, Narasimha, is an influential man with rustic habits who doesn’t find Nandini to be traditional enough for his son. Nandini is uncomfortable with the casual approach to violence that she and her son Raja see in the household. Narasimha’s wife is a kind-hearted person who takes care of Shekhar, Nandini, and Raja. She requests them to remain in India for a few more days to celebrate Shekhar’s birthday, and during this time Shekhar is killed by Narasimha’s rivals.

Nandini is distraught and tries to take her son Raja away from this madness and violence, but Narasimha stops her from doing so. He says Raja must be raised traditionally to avenge his father’s death, and if needed, Nandini can leave the town by leaving her son behind. Nandini refuses to allow this, and, with the help of Narasimha’s family members, she escapes from the house with her son. Jai Singh, a petty thief and drifter, helps Nandini evade Narasimha’s man to board a train to Jaipur. Jai is killed in the midst of violence while trying to protect Nandini and her son. Narasimha continues to pursue Nandini but ultimately allows her and the child Raja to leave after emotionally interacting with his grandson.