‘Mardaani’: Rani Mukherji Takes On Sex Trafficking Liam Neeson-Style

One thing is very clear while watching Yash Raj Films and Pradeep Sarkar’s “Mardaani”: Rani Mukherji fully understands the pain of India’s women who are in the midst of terrible unrest thanks to sexual attacks and inequality.

Film Review: “Mardaani”

Director: Pradeep Sarkar

Cast: Rani Mukerji, Tahir Bhasin, Jishu Sengupta

Duration: 152-minutes

One thing is very clear while watching Yash Raj Films and Pradeep Sarkar’s “Mardaani”: Rani Mukherji fully understands the pain of India’s women who are in the midst of terrible unrest thanks to sexual attacks and inequality.

And not only does she understand it, she wants to help fight it. “Mardaani” is two-and-a-half hours of sheer woman power and intelligence that succeeds in captivating audiences through its concept and Mukherji’s performance, but overdoes it a bit in execution.

“Mardaani” follows Mukherji’s as Shivani Shivaji Roy, a high-ranking inspector of the crime branch in Mumbai who is dedicated to taking down sex trafficking. Shivani is an inspector who can not only solve intricate crimes, but can also take down the bad guys responsible with her hands alone. Violence is not shied away from in this film, in fact “Mardaani” received an A-certificate from the Indian censor board.

Even Bollywood star Aamir Khan stated that while he praised “Mardaani,” he was uncomfortable with his children witnessing the level of violence in the film. When a young woman very dear to Shivani gets kidnapped for sex-trafficking, the inspector is set on a determined path to take down the leader of the trafficking ring, a young man who calls himself Walt because he enjoys “Breaking Bad.”

While that pop culture reference is a bit cheesy, the idea of the plot is actually quite interesting. The feminism is empowering to watch and Mukherji sets fire to the screen. The actor who plays Walt has some quietly creepy, evil moments. The only problem with the film is that the last half of the film is wrought with overly dramatic Bollywood dialogues.

Some people might say that adding big Bollywood dialogues for Mukherji that are similar to those in films like “Dabangg” or other male-driven films is a great step in the right direction. But these cheesy lines are tired and should not overcome as many films as they do right now, no matter the gender of its star.

In a film like “Mardaani” it makes sense to see the violence and dark nature of trafficking because it makes the film more realistic. And obviously in a film, one must learn to suspend disbelief so that the storyline can continue in an entertaining manner. Thankfully there aren’t many moments of Bollywood action cliches where heroes are running around punching villains in the face and sending them 50-feet into a brick wall, which immediately crumbles.

Despite the cheesy lines in the last half of the film, “Mardaani” brings to life a very serious and important issue facing Indians every day. Human trafficking, especially trafficking of young women and children is a prevalent problem in many areas of the world and in India in particular the abuse against women is becoming an epidemic.

For Mukherji, Sarkar and Yash Raj Films to take a stand against these crimes with a film like this is quite an achievement. This is not the first time Mukherji has been involved with a film about injustice towards women. She also starred in “No One Killed Jessica” with Vidya Balan. That film was about a model who was shot and killed by the son of a politician who was later acquitted due to lack of evidence. After public protests and backlash the case was reopened and the murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Without giving anything away, “Mardaani” also features a conclusion with justice which involves the female victims of the trafficking ring getting a bit of vengeance for their pain and torment. It’s feat that doesn’t happen often in the world, and that makes seeing it onscreen that much more satisfying.