I initially bought this DVD because it had SRK and Aishwarya Rai on the cover and I thought, hey! another film starring Aishu and Shah Rukh, little did I know that Aishwarya would only appear in an item number in the last quarter of the film in a song which she shares with SRK and helps introduce his character who is in the film for about just 15 minutes. Shakti is a film about a mother's love and endurance. It's a film about transformations, ignorance, coming of age, stepping into the know and embracing the harsh realities of life. The item number in which SRK and Aishu appear in has nothing to do with the movie. It's actually a dream sequence that occurs while SRK's drunken character is knocked unconscious by booze. He dreams that Aishwarya Rai is this sexy street girl who shows up at his favourite hangout spot one day, dressed scantily and begins to seduce him. The title of the song is 'Ishq Kamina' (loosely translated as "Love's a bitch!") and it is just plain smoking hot! Don't miss it.

Okay, I know this does'nt project India in a good light. But the overall theme of the movie is not India, it's Shakti. The power of a warlord, and the power of a mother. The relationship between Nandini and her husband and son swallow you up in their warmth. Then things go terribly wrong. The interaction between Nandini and her father in law - the power of their dysfunctional relationship - and the lives changed by it are the strengths of this movie. Shah Rukh Khan's performance seems to be a mere cameo compared to the believable desperation of Karisma Kapoor. It is easy to get caught up in the love, violence and redemption of lives in this film, and find yourself heaving a sigh of relief and sadness at the climax. The musical interludes are strengths, believable and well done.

Indian Directors have it tough, They have to compete with movies like "Laggan" where 11 henpecked,castrated males defend their village and half of them are certifiable idiots. "Devdas", a hapless, fedar- festooned foreign return, drinking to oblivion, with characters running in endless corridors, oblivious to any one's feelings or sentiments-alas they live in an ornate squalor of red tapestry and pageantry. But to make a good movie, you have to tight-rope walk to appease the frontbenchers scumdwellers who spit in their homes and theaters,who are the quentessential gakwkers, mesmerized with Split skirts and Dishum-Dishum fights, preferably involving scum actors like Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, who are the ugly makaka monkey's, good for cleaning toilets, who should never been allowed into India. So you can connect with a director, who wants to tell a tale of leonine village head, who in own words "defending his Village." This is considered a violent movie or too masculine for a male audience. There are very few actors who can convey the anger and pathos like Nana Patekar (Narasimhan). Nana Patekar lets you in his courtyard and watch him beret and mock the politician when his loyal admirers burst in laughter with every word of satire thrown at him, meanwhile his daughter is bathing his grandson. This is as authentic a scene you can get in rural India. Nana Patekar is the essential actor who belongs to the old school of acting which is a disappearing breed in Hindi Films that is taken over by these suvvar corrupt rats. The violence depicted is an intricate part of storytelling with Song&Dances thrown in for the gawkers, without whom movies won't sell, a sad but true state of affairs. Faster this changes better for "Bollywood". All said and done this is one good Movie.

I can't say I truly liked this movie. However, I will start out with some good points, just to let you know I really tried to appreciate it. I was impressed by the use of color. Once the story moved locations into India, the ladies costumes exploded into a full rainbow array of silk beauty. Several times I noticed that the director had selected costume placement, tapestries and backdrop in order to maximize color arrangement, providing a very pleasing and artistic effect. There were some beautiful scenes where a lavish amount of jewelry was used to decorate the women. Particularly the leading actress, who in one particular scene had over 30 pounds of sparkling gold and diamond (cubic zirconium) dangling from every available node of her body. It was enough to satisfy the most particular of fetishes.The costume designer was apparently only able to dress the female actors. All the men wore plaid or t-shirts. LA gang-bangers would have really put them in there place in any fashion contest. I was not impressed. Even the leading male actor, who would have looked great in some nice authentic Indian colors, wore only a bluish-grey turtle neck in his most dressed up scenes.This movie was first and foremost a musical. With impromptu dancing springing up in the most exotic of locations. One such set was choreographed with a draped backdrop of beautiful Indian mountains and streams. One must overlook the fact that our curvy leading lady must have brought 10 changes of clothes along with her for the day, but then again don't try to look for anything past the thinnest veil of a plot in this flick. They danced around the Indian castle in the desert in another fine musical scene. Once again very beautiful, but it seemed to have little to do with the plot. The singer in this scene popped out of nowhere (apparently because he had no acting skills. as I noticed afterwards) and sang and danced. I had a distinct feeling that the movie was trying to say I should know who he was. A cameo completely lost on me, but I'm certain that he will be familiar to those in the know. The musical scenes where singly the best part of the movie. I found the music very nice, but I am not a knowledgeable fan of Indian music, so I suggest you check the soundtrack first if this is important to you.Some scenes were highly overdone. Like the continual close-ups of the leading lady. My companion and I counted well over 20 prolonged close-up on her eyes while some weird hypnotic sounds and chimes played. These jarring segues were unsettling at first, but became humorous as the movie played on. I felt as though the film was trying to mesmerize me with her eyes. Maybe it worked because I found her more and more attractive as the movie proceed (although I suspect it may have been the midriff revealing Indian costumes). Also, there was one particularly poor scene where the leading man was running across the desert to reach a jeep 10 feet away. His running was shot from about 20 different angles and he continued to get further and further away on each cut. I assume this was for some climatic effect, but it really didn't work.There seemed to be a fixation on blood sweat and tears throughout the movie. Primarily blood, which I believe was being used to eroticize some of the scenes. I found it had the opposite effect on me, but this may be a result of cultural differences. Also, you'll like this movie if you're into seeing men sweat. Particularly, in one of the musicals, there has to be about 40 topless men with glistening muscular bodies dancing around. This scene alone may be enough to interest some viewers.Even though I refuse to give plot hints away on principle alone, I would advice you to look elsewhere if you're after a deep and intricate story. It paralleled Woody Allen's bananas in depth and Godzilla in logic. Perhaps the thin plot allowed me to laugh a lot more, which was nice. The initial opening scene of a screaming women with blood on her face, put me on the edge of comfort and made me wonder what I was in for. Fortunately, the movie was much more light hearted. But now I'm breaking my promise. I'll give no more away.I have to confess that I didn't watch the whole movie. I know it's not fair to judge a movie without staying until completion, but it was a marathon. At 2:00 into the movie and during a major scene, the screen shattered and it said 'Break'. The movie continued, but I looked around and wondered out loud "Was that the intermission?" After 2:45 we snuck out, being careful not to disturb the other 4 audience members in the over 400 seating capacity theatre. I just knew it was going to be another hour or so, because there were too many holes to be filled in the plot. Or maybe it was about to end with a bunch of dangling questions. Either way I didn't lose any sleep wondering what might have happened next.In the end I had a real fun time. I can say that I will never forget this movie. I did laugh a lot. I would only have wonderful things to say about this movie if they'd work on the men's costumes, get a good script, higher a new film editor and get some better actors. Is that too much to ask? My advice is that you should see this movie if you are looking for something very different from the standard fare and this is the only Indian pop movie playing in your neighbourhood. Be warned that it is quite long and may be a bit of a marathon for some (bring a pillow and blanket for comfort.