Movie Review : Mardaani (2014)

Rating : Good (4/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2014
Running time : 1 hour 54 minutes
Director : Pradeep Sarkar
Cast : Rani Mukherjee, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Anil George, Jishu Sengupta
Kidwise : PG-15

Shivani Shivaji Roy (Mukerji) is a senior police officer with the crime branch. She lives with her doctor husband (Sengupta) and her school-going niece. In search of Pyari, a missing child, Shivani stumbles onto a child sex trafficking ring. The child Pyaari has been abducted by this ring, but there are many more children affected. The ring runs deep and wide with friends in high places, and has strength enough to threaten Shivani’s life and family.

Shivani, of course, will not let go.

The film is fast-paced, with nary a boring moment. From the moment Shivani gets a hint of the actual ring, she is on the case, investigating, researching, and dredging up information to present to her seniors so she can get departmental support and action. Director Sarkar (of Parineeta, Laga Chunari Mein Daag fame) balances out Shivani’s work and home life, giving her a realistic personality and she comes across almost believably. I say almost, because as expected of Hindi films, the bravado and swagger are overdone, especially for a female cop.

This film has only one star – Rani Mukherjee. And that is enough because Rani carries the entire film very ably; a very fine performance indeed. Not that we expected any less. Her character is thankfully not made to sing and dance, so we tend to take her more seriously that the Chulbul Pandey types. Shivani is gutsy and fearless and doesn’t back down – a great role model.

As the film opens, we see her joshing with her fellow officers, cursing like a seasoned hand, yet asserting her authority. Some disbelief is natural, when in an initial scene she is shown slapping a trouble-maker without him trying to fight back. In the second half, Rani gets to do most of the stuff that Hindi film cop heroes are shown doing – chases through crowded streets, physical fighting – kicks and punches and good old dhishum-dhishum. And she does them well.

The bad guy in the film is played by Tahir Bhasin who does a remarkable job. And he was apparently in “One by Two”, although I don’t remember his character in that film. Bhasin’s character in Mardaani is a suave, educated, well-heeled English speaking drop-out from Hindu college. Cool, composed and unflinchingly vile, this man addresses Shivani with superficial decorum, but finds the chinks in her armor and targets them. Bhasin plays him with subtle menace.

There are many uncomfortable scenes in Mardaani, but they were probably necessary to emphasize the evil of trafficking. Towards the end, statistics about sex trafficking appear on screen. One of those, is that India is the hub of this crime.

Mardaani is an interesting watch. Now, I might be asking for the moon and the stars (but where would we be if we didn’t even ask?) but there could be improvements – like what if we had as a cop heroine, a female character akin to the soft-spoken yet competent Inspector Devrat Kulkarni of Talaash?

And of course, go watch this film.

Kidwise : I believe the censor board rates this an “A” film. And as I said above, there are some very hard to watch scenes in this film.  Some visuals might be disturbing for younger children.