Shakti: The Power

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 and are expecting a child soon. One day, Shekhar learns that his family is in trouble, back 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 decide to travel to India in order to assess the situation.

The couple arrives in Shekhar's home town 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 in order 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 in a traditional way in order 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 a drifter, helps Nandini evade Narasimha's man in order to board a train to Jaipur. Jai is killed in the midst of violence whilst 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.

• Karishma Kapoor as Nandini, Shekhar's wife turned widow
• Shah Rukh Khan as Jai Singh, a drifter who helps Nandini
• Nana Patekar as Narasimha, Shekhar's father.
• Sanjay Kapoor as Shekhar, Nandini's late husband
• Deepti Naval as Shekhar's mother
• Divya Dutta as Shekhar's sister
• Ritu Shivpuri as Kamli, Shekhar's sister
• Prakash Raj as a 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 item song "Ishq Kamina")
• Prabhu Deva as a dancer (cameo appearance in song "Dumroo Baja Re")
• Ganesh Acharya as a dancer (cameo appearance in the song "Dumroo Baja Re")

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.[5] Fardeen Khan was the original choice for Sanjay Kapoor's role and the film was originally titled Vaapsi.[6]

Songs were mainly composed by Ismail Darbar and penned by Mehboob, but one song was composed by Anu Malik and written by Sameer - "Ishq Kameena".

A critic from Rediff.com wrote that "Faced with a regressive audience such as ours, I have one question: did this film need to be made?"[7] 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".[8] 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".[9]

Shakti: The Power grossed ₹13.82 crore (US$1.7 million) in India and $1.35 million (₹6.54 crore) in other countries, for a worldwide total of ₹20.36 crore (US$2.5 million), against its ₹10 crore (US$1.3 million) budget. It had a worldwide opening weekend of ₹7.33 crore (US$920,000), and grossed ₹11.26 crore (US$1.4 million) in its first week.[1] It is the 13th-highest-grossing film of 2002 worldwide.[10]

• Shakti: The Power at IMDb