Sherni 2021

Vidya Vincent [Vidya Balan] is appointed as the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) in a sensitive zone in Madhya Pradesh. It is her first field posting, and she approaches the job with evident passion and a strong sense of duty. Her team includes Pyare Lal, a fellow forest officer who uses motion sensor cameras to track tiger movements, and Babbal, Vidya’s driver. When she discovers that water holes in the forest are not being replenished by the local contractor Manish, she publicly admonishes him and serves him a show-cause notice. Yet her authority is routinely undermined by her senior, Bansilal Bansal [Brijendra Kala], whose influence stretches through a local MLA, creating a tense political backdrop where the contractor’s political connections shield mismanagement.

As the new DFO, Vidya finds herself caught between professional duty and personal doubt. She confides in her husband, Pawan [Mukul Chadda], who works in a potato chips company, and he urges her to reconsider resignation, pointing out that a permanent government job offers stability in a life already marked by uncertainty. But Vidya feels trapped: she cannot simply walk away, nor can she turn a blind eye to politicians or a superior who doesn’t fully back her.

Tragedy strikes early in her tenure when two locals are killed in tiger attacks. ACM Mohan notes that some locals might be luring cattle into tiger territory, especially since government compensation is often issued for such kills. Hassan Noorani [Vijay Raaz], a zoology professor and fierce conservationist, proposes a DNA-based plan to identify the tiger and suggests capturing it to relocate it to a nearby National Park, hoping to spare the lives of both humans and animals from ongoing conflict. Vidya learns that the forest’s borders are a mosaic of human settlements interwoven with wildlife corridors, forcing animals to cross through inhabited areas and creating dangerous encounters.

With elections around the corner, the political stakes intensify. GK Singh, the incumbent MLA, and his opponent PK Singh [Satyakam Anand] seek to weaponize the tiger issue for votes. GK pledges to deliver cattle feed to villagers and to install electric fencing, while also promising to capture the tiger and send it to a zoo or circus. PK challenges the forest department’s integrity, accusing it of aiding GK’s campaign. He even resists allowing DNA sampling from the dead locals, until Vidya offers her personal guarantee that the tiger problem will be addressed, after which PK allows the DNA work to proceed. PK introduces Bansal to two hunters, DK and Ali, but Bansal remains wary, holding out for a transfer in exchange for doing his bidding.

The forest team struggles to trap the tigress as the villagers’ fear grows and their livelihoods hang in the balance. They argue that the traditional grazing grounds have been converted into teak plantations by a local figure, Saiprasad, pushing people deeper into the forest just to sustain their livestock. DNA results reveal the killer is a tigress named T-12, who is on a trajectory with two cubs. After the tigress claims a third victim, PK rouses the mob by burning a Forest Department vehicle, while the MLA brings in a local hunter, Ranjan Rajhans [Sharat Saxena], to boost the hunt.

Vidya sees through Ranjan’s calculating motives and, with the support of her senior, Akhil Nangia [Neeraj Kabi], she moves to sideline him. A larger search party, including villagers like Jyoti, presses on to locate the tigress and her cubs before anyone else. As the situation spirals, a new death reinforces the sense of urgency, and PK accuses the officials of protection rather than protection of the people. Vidya, pushed to the edge, discovers that the scratches on a victim’s body were from a bear, not the tigress, a revelation that shakes the narrative but faces initial resistance from Nangia.

Media attention grows as the struggle intensifies. Nangia’s authority is tested, and Ranjan returns to the field with a reckless plan to lure the tigress using tiger urine, a dangerous and illegal tactic. The plan succeeds only too well: the tigress is shot down, and a tranquilizer is deployed afterward to make the death appear to be a required killing. The hunt for the cubs begins in earnest, and Vidya is devastated by what she calls a premeditated murder of the tigress. Nangia resists reopening the case and gives Ranjan a kind of vindicating cover, leaving Vidya disillusioned and ready to quit.

Ranjan’s moment of supposed triumph earns him praise from some villagers and political leverage for GK Singh, deepening Vidya’s sense of betrayal. Rather than retreat, she contemplates resignation but is drawn back into action when a call from Jyoti and her family reveals that the cubs have survived. Vidya hurries to Lagur to reunite with the cubs, tears up the resignation letter, and reaffirms her commitment to the living beings she has sworn to protect. The moment signals a turning point: she chooses not to abandon the forest, insisting on responsibility and persistence.

In the final scenes, Vidya is shown not in the field but in a museum, examining animal remains—a stark, ironical image that underscores the paradox of her career: she is a capable, morally upright officer who ends up as the custodian of the dead rather than the guardian of the living. Yet her resolve lingers. The film closes on a note of quiet defiance and renewed faith in her vocation, as she faces the complexities of conservation, community conflict, and political pressure with a resolute, lioness-like spirit.