Sherni follows the story of a set of forest officials on a tiger trail who is a man eater after there are frequent deaths in the village. What follows is a quiet circus that opens a can of worms. The story is outstanding and nothing that I have witnessed in any film so far, leave alone Bollywood. Such a subtle story that has a potential to leave a lasting impact! The screenplay is extremely well penned. If you are familiar with the work of the director, he has a tendency of leaving many empty spaces in the screenplay in which you get a feeling that very little action is taking place. But if you look closely and follow the subtext, there is a whole lot of underlying drama taking place. And this is on full display here. The drama is realistic and moves at just the right pace. The narrative is extremely balanced and does not take sides on which party is right. To give you a small perspective, the land encroachment is as much of a problem as the villagers not finding a spot for the grazing of their domestic animals. And there are subtle digs at patriarchy(a word made famous by me in a few podcasts that I was a part of) or the politics featuring the forest. All this wraps up into tale that leaves you in a state of shock towards the end but with a ray of hope. And the last image of the museum is such a contrast to the real animals in the forest. It is strange how the same humans who are in awe of the “fossil” animals at the museum are scared looking at them in the jungle. Hence proved! Humans are the most selfish and self centered lot encroaching the jungle which is the habitat of many animals and later crying foul when they are attacked in return. * Slow Claps *. With that little rant, this screenplay is nothing short of a masterpiece that acts like a mirror in which you and me both are responsible for the habitat loss of many animals.