Katiyabaaz

There are about 1.5 billion people living without electricity worldwide. Of these, 400 million people live in India. – World Energy Outlook Kanpur, an industrial town of three million-plus, is the image of a modern dystopia: crumbling infrastructure, poverty, pollution and rolling power blackouts. This aptly named film documents, in often hair-raising detail, the common Robin Hood practise of power stealing for redistribution, and the futile attempts of the authorities to stop it. The key protagonists are a pint-sized 28-year-old amateur electrician who taps into the power lines of the rich and redirects them to the poor, and the new CEO of the local power company, whose worthy mission is to reduce the blackouts. Filmed over a long, hot Indian summer, this atmospheric exposé crosses between the key players as tensions rise and a solution seems impossible to imagine; a showdown much more so. "This vibrant exposé gives a whole new meaning to the words ‘power struggle'." – Tribeca Film Festival