# Shakti: The Power

Shakti: The Power is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film co-written and directed by Krishna Vamsi, starring Karisma Kapoor, Nana Patekar, 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.
Shakti: The Power is considered to be one of Karisma Kapoor's career-best performances; with her and Patekar's performances being lauded by fans and critics. Despite this, it did not fare well commercially as expected.
At the 48th Filmfare Awards, Shakti: The Power received 2 nominations – Best Actress (Kapoor) and Best Villain (Patekar).

## Plot

Nandini is a young woman living in Canada. Her two uncles have taken care of her ever since her parents died. Nadini’s uncles are in a business partnership with Shekhar. Shekhar and Nandini have been friends for a while now and Nandini’s uncles consider him to be the best prospect for Nandini’s marriage. Shekhar is hesitant at first, but decides to propose to Nandini. They get married, move in together and have a son named Rajeshwar or Raja. Their life is blissful until Shekhar receives news about his mother and father Narsimha in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Shekhar desperately tries to call, but gets no answer. He becomes desperate and tries to leave for India for three days, but breaks down. Nandini and Shekhar travel to India to see Shekhar’s parents. At a bus station, someone recognizes Shekhar. Shekhar also sees his half-uncle Maharaj, who makes Nandini feel uncomfortable. Shekhar and Nandini begin their journey by bus until a bomb explodes right up front. The bus is then attacked by Shekhar’s other half-uncle Beeja. Beeja’s men pull Shekhar out of the bus and prepare to kill him. Fortunately, Narsimha's men arrive in time and kill half of Beeja’s men. Beeja still manages to escape. Shekhar and Nandini meet a childhood friend of Shekhar named Praatap, a police officer. Prataap tells Shekhar not to see his father, but Shekhar decides either way. Shekhar and Nandini arrive at the compound where Shekhar’s family lives. There, Nandini learns that Shekhar belongs to a clan with his dad being the leader. A clan of 400 families living in 40 villages. Nandini learns that Shekhar’s clan has been involved in a family feud for a long time with Shekhar’s half uncles Beeja and Maharaj. The feud began when Beeja attacked Shekhar’s sister’s wedding with a bomb. Shekhar’s brother in law was killed. From that point on, a war between the clan and Beeja’s faction erupted. Shekhar wished to escape from all the violence, educated himself and fled to Canada. Nandini, disturbed by the violence and rural customs, wants to go back to Canada. She also begins to have nightmares about Beeja killing her and her family. All the while Narsimha insults Shekhar for running away not trying to take revenge for his brother in law. Nandini finds some solace in Shekhar’s mother, but cannot become accustomed to the environment.
Beeja is eventually ambushed by Narsimha’s men and brought to the compound. Shekhar’s sister begs her father to kill him. Shekhar tries to free Beeja from their grasp. Narsimha berates him into forgetting about Beeja murdering his sister’s husband. Shekhar begs his father to forgive and forget about the past, but Narsimha wants justice. Beeja is then decapitated. The clan celebrates. Maharaj swears revenge. Prataap, Shekhar’s friend and police officer, tries to investigate, but is scared away by Narsimha. Nandini begs Shekhar to go back to Canada. Raja also gets a little sick. Shekhar agrees. Shekhar’s mother reminds him of his birthday and he decides to stay a little longer. Meanwhile, a local politician tries get Narsimha’s support, but is humiliated by him. He then turns to Maharaj to get him to kill Narsimha. Shekhar tries to convince his father to run for the election and tries to get him to register with the local election collector. Narsimha does not want to do it so Shekhar tries to do it himself. Before Shekhar departs, he gives Prataap his passports and money to help schedule an earlier flight back to Canada. Joining the politician to the collector, the convoy is ambushed by Shekhar’s other half-uncle Maharaj. His hitman then kills Shekhar. The politician escapes as part of the plan. After Shekhar’s funeral, Narsimha kills the politician and swears vengeance on his Maharaj. At Shekhar’s memorial, Nandini tells Narsimha that she and Raja are leaving for Canada, but Narsimha wants to make Raja the avenger of his father’s killer and future leader of the clan’s ongoing war. He also insults Nandini for being selfish, for not allowing the family to continue it’s perceived struggle for justice. Nandini’s begs Shekhar’s mother to help her get Raja back, but to no avail. She tries once to escape, but is brought back. She then takes a second chance to escape and makes it to Prataap’s police station. Over there, Prataap has arrested a drifter and small-time thief named Jai Singh. Jai Singh has big dreams of making money in Dubai. Prataap tells Nandini that everyone fears her father-in-law, no one will help her and gives the passports and money back to her. Unfortunately, Narsimha arrives, beats Nandini, takes Raja for himself and locks Nandini in a shack. His men also lock Prataap and the other cops in their own jail while Jai Singh uses the commotion to escape. Shekhar’s mom and two sisters, sickened by Narsimha’s cruelty, blow up a weapons dump as a distraction and free Nandini. One of Shekhar’s sisters’ tries to help Nandini and Raja sneak out of the compound, but is killed by Shekhar’s uncle. Shekhar’s mother tries to commit suicide as a form of protest, but is saved by Narsimha. She then goes on a rant, boasting about how she has gone crazy, feeling like a slave, seeing armed men hunt down Nandini and feeling guilty about getting Shekhar killed for asking him to stay longer.
Nandini is eventually found by Narsimha’s men, but Jai Singh, the drifter from the police station saves both of them. Nandini then tries convince Jai Singh to drive her to the airport, but Jai Singh refuses. She then gives Jai Singh American dollars through which he changes his mind. Maharaj and his hitman eventually find the trio and ambush them. Jai Singh, Raja and Nandini eventually make it to a rail way track where Jai Singh cuts the signal wire to stop the train. Jai Singh successfully manages to get them both on and then fights off Maharaj’s gang with a handle bar. He stabs the hitman with his own man machete and cuts Maharaj throat, killing them both. The train leaves and a mortally wounded Jai Singh dies looking at the dollars Nandini gave him.
Nandini eventually makes to the airport, but Narsimha makes to the airport too. Instead of taking them back, he kisses Raja’s head and gives them his blessing. He says that he does’t care if she hates him. Nandini tells Raja to pay his respects to his grandpa and then go back to Canada.

## Cast

* Karishma Kapoor as Nandini, Shekhar's wife
* Nana Patekar as Narasimha, Shekhar's father
* Sanjay Kapoor as Shekhar, Nandini's husband
* Shah Rukh Khan as Jai Singh, a drifter
* Deepti Naval as Shekhar's mother
* Divya Dutta as Shekhar's sister
* Ritu Shivpuri as Kamli, Shekhar's sister
* Prakash Raj as an unnamed sharpshooter
* Vijay Raaz as Beeja
* Tiku Talsania as Nandini's uncle
* Jaspal Bhatti as Nandini's uncle
* Chandrakant Gokhale as Narasimha's father
* Jai Gidwani as Raja, Nandini's and Shekhar's son
* Anupam Shyam as Maharaj, Narasimha's half brother
* Vijay Gupta as Narasimha's henchman
* Rajshree Solanki as Shekhar's sister
* Chris Ippolito as a dancer
* Rocky Verma as a goon
* Aishwarya Rai as dancer (guest appearance in the item song "Ishq Kamina") in Jai Singh's dream
* Mumaith Khan as background dancer (guest appearance in the item song "Ishq Kamina")
* Prabhu Deva as a dancer (cameo appearance in the song "Dumroo Baja Re")
* Ganesh Acharya as a dancer (cameo appearance in the song "Dumroo Baja Re")

## Production

The film was produced by then-retired actress Sridevi (Sanjay Kapoor's sister-in-law) under the banner Sridevi Productions and was supposed to be her comeback film, but she had to find a replacement when she found out she was pregnant. She initially offered her role to Kajol, but she rejected it so Karisma Kapoor was signed instead. Fardeen Khan was the original choice for Sanjay Kapoor's role and the film was originally titled Vaapsi.

## Music

The songs were composed by Ismail Darbar and the lyrics were written by Mehboob. Anu Malik composed one song and Sameer Anjaan wrote the lyrics for song ''Ishq Kameena''.
| # | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
| 1 | "Dil Ne Pukara Hai" | Alka Yagnik, Adnan Sami | 06:27 |
| 2 | "Dumroo Baje" | Sukhwinder Singh | 06:15 |
| 3 | "Hum Tum Mile – Male" | Adnan Sami | 05:37 |
| 4 | "Hum Tum Mile – Female" | Kavita Krishnamurthy | 06:10 |
| 5 | "Ishq Kamina" | Alka Yagnik, Sonu Nigam | 05:26 |
| 6 | "Jhoomti Gataon Mein" | Mohammad Salamat | 07:35 |
| 7 | "Mere Munna Raja" | Anuradha Paudwal | 05:05 |
| 8 | "Aye Chand Dil Ke" | Kavita Krishnamurthy | 06:57 |
| 9 | "Jhoomati Ghata Mein" | Instrumental | 06:29 |

## Reception

Derek Elley of Variety wrote that "Strikingly lensed in the wild semi-deserts of Rajasthan, and anchored by a finely shaded performance from Nana Patekar as the patriarchal father-in-law, film swings between believable realism and Bollywood formulae to rocky results". Majorie Baumgarten of Austin Chronicle wrote that "the film is a gripping drama that is full of memorable faces, emotions, and conflicts between the old ways and the new".

## Box office

Shakti: The Power grossed ₹13.82 crore (US$1.6 million) in India and $1.35 million (₹6.54 crore) in other countries, for a worldwide total of ₹20.36 crore (US$2.3 million), against its ₹10 crore (US$1.1 million) budget. It had a worldwide opening weekend of ₹7.33 crore (US$840,000), and grossed ₹11.26 crore (US$1.3 million) in its first week. It is the 13th-highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2002 worldwide.

### India

It opened on Friday, 20 September 2002, across 285 screens, and earned ₹98 lakh (US$110,000) nett on its opening day. It grossed ₹2.82 crore (US$320,000) nett in its opening weekend, and had a first week of ₹4.62 crore (US$530,000) nett. The film earned a total of ₹8.47 crore (US$970,000) nett, and was declared "Flop" by Box Office India. It is the 20th-highest-grossing film of 2002 in India.

### Overseas

It had an opening weekend of $565,000 (₹2.74 crore) and went on to gross $770,000 (₹3.73 crore) in its first week. The film earned a total of $1.35 million (₹6.54 crore) at the end of its theatrical run. Overseas, It is the 5th-highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2002.

## Awards

| Category | Nominees | Result |
| Star Screen Award for Best Actress | Karisma Kapoor | Nominated |
| Filmfare Award for Best Actress | Karisma Kapoor | Nominated |
| Filmfare Award for Best Villain | Nana Patekar | Nominated |