Powerless
In Kanpur, India, a city with 15 hour power outages, a nimble young electrician provides Robin Hood-style services to the poor. Meanwhile, the first female chief of the electricity utility company is on a mission to dismantle the illegal connections, for good.
According to World Energy Outlook, there are about 1.5 billion people living without electricity worldwide. Of these, 400 million people live in India.
Kanpur, city of 3 million people and formerly known as "The Manchester of India" for its glorious mills and industries, is slowly crumbling to dust for lack of electricity. A 28-year-old electrician seems an unlikely hope, as he weaves a web of illegal connections across the city to provide electricity. Meanwhile, the newly appointed head of the electricity company promises to restore Kanpur’s glory days by weeding out electricity theft and putting people like the DIY electrician out of business. Both characters on opposite sides of this tussle over electricity grapple with a long Indian summer which tests their resolves. While corruption and lack of investment in infrastructure handicap efforts to bring order, poverty and inequality make it necessary for residents to steal electricity.