Award-winning director Krishna Vamsis latest effort is perhaps the most unsettling and insidious slow-burn drama to come out of Bollywood this year.
Shakti The Power tells the tale of a happily married couple caught up in a vicious circle of feudal families and bloodthirsty villagers who are a law unto themselves. Vamsis script crackles with intelligence, subverting most of the Bollywood action-movie clichés.
Nana Patekars mean depiction of a lecherous tribe leader is supremely crafted and subtly handled.
The pace is so measured and some post-interval sequences so bold, that audiences accustomed to the usual candyfloss romance formula might feel aggrieved. But surely thats better than reducing the story to the predictable pulp weve come to expect from Indian cinema in recent times?