Sherni Review

Sherni: More Than a Film, It’s a Mirror to Our Broken Wilderness

The Hindi word Sherni translates literally to "lioness," but in common parlance, it has come to mean a fierce, powerful woman. When director Amit Masurkar titled his 2021 film Sherni , he was playing on both definitions. The result is a quiet, devastating masterpiece that uses a man-animal conflict story to explore the brutal realities of India’s forests, its bureaucracy, and its gender politics.

Vidya’s mission is simple: capture the tigress and relocate her. But nothing is simple when humans have already encroached deep into the jungle. sherni

Sherni is not a comfortable watch. It will make you angry, sad, and helpless. But that’s the point. The film asks: What happens when a woman tries to do her job honestly in a broken system? And What happens when a tiger tries to live in a forest that no longer exists?

Sherni doesn’t offer easy answers. In fact, the film’s climax is famously ambiguous—and heartbreaking. Vidya succeeds in her mission, but the victory feels hollow. The last shot of the film shows a forest being cleared for a road. The message is clear: we are building over the wild, and then blaming the wild when it fights back. Sherni: More Than a Film, It’s a Mirror

India loses dozens of tigers every year to poaching and conflict. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, over 200 people die in tiger attacks annually, and nearly 100 tigers are killed or captured. The real issue is habitat fragmentation. As forests shrink, tigers walk into villages. And when that happens, the tiger always loses.

Vidya Vincent (played with remarkable restraint by Vidya Balan) is a forest officer in a remote part of Madhya Pradesh. She is competent, calm, and deeply ethical. But she is also a woman in a male-dominated system, routinely sidelined, mocked, and underestimated. Vidya’s mission is simple: capture the tigress and

When a tigress—the “Sherni” of the title—starts straying into human villages and killing livestock (and eventually people), Vidya is caught in the middle. On one side are politicians who see the tiger as a vote bank. On the other are villagers who are justifiably angry and scared. And in the middle are the forest department’s own inefficiencies, corruption, and apathy.