Shakti (2025) Review: A Sincere and Meaningful Drama!

The first thing that struck me while watching Shakti was how familiar everything felt. This is my first time watching a Nepali film, yet as an Indian, I never felt like I was being transported into a completely unfamiliar world. The streets, homes, people, traditions and overall cultural atmosphere felt surprisingly close to home. India and Nepal share so many cultural and social similarities, and that familiarity made it easy for me to settle into the world of the film and connect with its characters. But beneath that natural and simple atmosphere, Shakti carries some extremely heavy subjects.

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I found myself looking at the film through two different spaces: the world outside Durga’s home and the world inside it. Both are filled with problems, but they affect the characters in very different ways. Outside the home, director and writer Nani Sahra Walker brings several social issues into the narrative and integrates them effectively into Durga’s journey within the suffocating domestic space.

Durga is a Dalit woman, and her caste immediately places her within a social hierarchy that continues to affect the way she is treated. As her life becomes difficult, the divide between lower and higher castes becomes more apparent. The film doesn’t separate this issue from Durga’s personal struggles; instead, it becomes another obstacle she has to navigate while trying to protect herself and her family.

The film is equally direct when dealing with the everyday dangers and restrictions faced by women. Abuse, sexual harassment, safety and patriarchal expectations are all embedded into the story, particularly through the experiences of Durga as a single mother. Walker doesn’t treat these subjects as occasional talking points. They are part of the environment these women have to live in.

One of the most hard-hitting moments arrives during a conversation in the third act, when a male colleague says, “Our society tells men, they can do whatever they want,” and Durga responds, “Why worship for a goddess when there’s no respect for women?” That exchange is probably one of the clearest expressions of what Shakti is trying to say. It directly confronts the contradiction between the symbolic worship of women and the reality of how women are often treated in everyday society today.

Inside Durga’s home, however, the film becomes even more emotionally personal. The larger social problems are replaced by struggles that directly affect this family and their everyday existence. Durga is already dealing with the financial pressure of raising a child as a single mother, along with concerns about safety and providing a stable life for her daughter. But the story becomes considerably more painful when Lila experiences sexual abuse, and the trauma surrounding that experience begins affecting both mother and daughter.

I thought these portions were handled particularly well. The film doesn’t reduce the trauma to a single incident and immediately move on. Instead, it explores the emotional consequences and the way one traumatic experience can affect an entire family. Lila’s suffering also brings Durga’s own past trauma back to the surface, creating a difficult emotional connection between their experiences. The scenes surrounding these developments are strongly written and often genuinely impactful.

Furthermore, the performances are rock solid. Laxmi Bardewa as Durga delivers a particularly restrained and internal performance. Durga is carrying a lot throughout the film, financial pressure, taxing job, frustration, anger, grief and the responsibility of protecting her daughter, and Bardewa communicates much of that without constantly pushing the emotions outward.

More on the performances, Polina Oli as Lila also does a stellar job. Lila begins as a creative, energetic and lively child, full of innocence and freedom. That makes the later emotional changes in her character even more difficult to watch. She has to portray a child dealing with separated parents and an experience that gradually takes away the sense of freedom she once had. Oli manages to maintain that innocence from the beginning to the end while also conveying the confusion and trauma affecting the character.

Technically, I really liked the grounded approach of the production. Candi Guterres’ production design gives the homes and locations a simple, lived-in quality, while the exterior scenes make good use of Nepal’s natural beauty without making the setting feel overly polished or artificial. Keiko Nakahara’s cinematography is another highlight, particularly in the use of natural-looking light and the way the camera captures both intimate interiors and the surrounding environment. The sound design also works effectively.

Ultimately, Shakti is a heavy but meaningful drama that brings together social inequality, women’s safety, caste discrimination, trauma, motherhood and the failures of systems meant to protect vulnerable people. Nani Sahra Walker manages to fit these subjects into Durga and Lila’s story without making the film feel like a collection of disconnected social issues.

It is the emotional core of the mother-daughter relationship that holds everything together. The social commentary gives the film its voice, the trauma gives it emotional weight, and the performances make those experiences believable. For my first Nepali film, Shakti was not only easy to culturally connect with, but it also offered a story that felt painfully relevant across borders. It is a film with difficult things to say, and for the most part, it says them with sincerity and emotional strength. You can now rent and stream ‘Shakti (2025)’ on Amazon or Apple TV  or watch the movie for free on Tubi and follow the movie on Instagram for more updates.

‘Shakti (2025)’ Rating – 4.5/5