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Highlights

• Keerthy Suresh and Radhika Apte lead Netflix's five-episode crime drama set in a fictional south Indian region ruled by an 800-year-old sisterhood.
• The series explores whether women in positions of absolute power can avoid reproducing the oppressive systems traditionally associated with patriarchy.
• Strong performances, sharp dialogue and stylised storytelling make Akka engaging, although its political ideas are not always fully explored.

What happens when women take control of a world traditionally dominated by men? Does changing the gender of those in power automatically create a fairer society? Netflix's Akka, led by Keerthy Suresh and Radhika Apte, explores these uncomfortable questions through a violent crime saga built around an 800-year-old sisterhood.

Set in the fictional south Indian region of Perunuru, the five-episode series follows a powerful matriarchal community that controls the criminal underworld and the lucrative gold and illicit liquor trades. While its premise offers an interesting reversal of conventional crime dramas, the story gradually reveals that replacing male rulers with women does not necessarily dismantle the systems of oppression they inherit.