Katiyabaaz / Powerless

Power cables cover the megacity Kanpur like a spider’s web. Nevertheless, its residents can often sit for days without electricity. Power cuts in certain districts are more the rule than the exception, and poorer families don't have the financial means to draw from the grid legally. Loha Singh solves this problem in true Robin Hood-style by taking death-defying risks tapping into live cables in order to supply his fellow human beings with electricity. His counterpart, Rita Maheshwari, a smart woman at the top of the state-run energy company KESCo, has the almost insurmountable task of balancing the interests of her company with the needs of the population. POWERLESS examines this Indian metropolis’s cable chaos with a touch of humour while profiling its electrifyingly complex lines of conflict.