Mardaani Review

 

 Film: Mardaani
Director: Pradeep Sarkar
Cast: Rani Mukerji, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Sanjay Taneja, Jisshu Sengupta
Rating: ***

When a YRF production begins on an unglamorous note, with regular cop banter in a van, it is immediately taken as a signal of intent, and perhaps, rare ambition. Four minutes pass without a strand of a background score as Rani Mukerji—playing no-nonsense Maharashtrian crime-branch cop Shivani Shivaji Roy—demonstrates her badassery by cracking down on a shady smuggler or two.

Even if the bold subject demands such gravitas and treatment, this restraint is unprecedented by studio standards. The silence doesn't last too long though. A glorifying score and a couple of whistle-worthy lines are the only habitual commercial allowances, as the attention is solely and squarely on Roy. No love stories, no songs, no dance contests. Even her husband (Jisshu Sengupta) is no more than a sidenote.

It helps that we're already in the thick of things early on. Roy's motive is established quickly: A flower-seller girl is kidnapped from an orphanage, and it turns out that she was 'like family' to her. This seems convenient, but it often takes a personal loss for even the most clued-on minds to wake up and smell the script. For the remainder, it is Roy and her relentless pursuit of this organized child-trafficking/drug mafia based out of Delhi—where perverse ways (auctions, paedophile politicos) expectedly extend to the top. The moody production design and camerawork is top-notch, as is the casting of secondary characters (notably Anil George as Vakil)—all of who lend an adequately disturbing undertow to proceedings, even as the writing lags.

Rani is compelling as Roy, especially when she engages in a cat-and-mouse psychological game with a bratty super-villain and anonymous chief (Tahir Bhasin)—who calls himself 'Walt' (after his favourite TV-series character Walter White from "Breaking Bad"). Apart from an early blink-and-miss desert-lizard establishing shot, the tribute is complete with posters of the series adorning his room. Bhasin is remarkably chilling as Walt for the precise reason he isn't; he's too unassuming, self-aware and young to be a criminal mastermind.

The gimmicky stunts begin only towards the climax, where you know you're going to see something on the lines of Roy walking away in slow-mo from a burning bus. Because she is a victim of her own ego much like Walt, the verbal-explanation-of-masterplan-flashbacks tendency—however cliched—is almost a logical extension of their juvenile battle that culminates into a sermon-riddled spectacle. Her plan could have been less showboating and more logical, but where's the film in it then?

That the trailers of Mardaani were disappointing could be a blessing in disguise. But for the climax, it is an understated and relatively agreeable mainstream film—manipulative but not exploitative—that thankfully falls short of sensationalizing a serious issue.