Movie: Mardaani
Director: Pradeep Sarkar
Cast: Rani Mukerji, Tahir Bhasin, Jisshu Sengupta, Priyanka Sharma
Rating: ***
It’s interesting to take notice of a film that seems so much the focused issue-tackling initiative on the surface level and one that also stays firmly cinematic. Mardaani, as a cop film is manipulative in that sense but accomplishes everything that the recent sequel to Singham didn’t, despite its ‘loud’ determination.
The director Pradeep Sarkar chooses a conflict that would have been nothing more than a ten-minute introduction sequence for a male lead in a conventional commercial film . Although there’s no repeated underlining of its feminine nature, he uses Shivani Shivaji Rao’s no-nuisance character to move forward sans any tiring emotional longings or preaching.
When the lead character is en route to track down the baddie, never does she shy away from admitting that it’s for a personal reason. Even in a sequence in which her family is victimized, she doesn’t take much time to console her beloved and gets back to business within moments. But for her show of fearlessness, she isn’t an embodiment of many larger than life facets and leads a normal existence. Significantly, she is genuine and isn’t trying to clone a Chulbul Pandey or a Rowdy Rathore.
Mardaani once again puts the importance of a gripping screenplay that mattresses an ordinary story. The ideas of the female protagonist never smell ‘Hollywood’y and are very rooted to the place she comes from. Lasting shorter than two hours, there isn’t the slightest amount of leisure offered for them to unravel . The warnings are menacing and ear-friendly. The sound levels are constantly kept in check. With a quality technical team treating you with eye pleasing hues, also remembering the fact that you’re watching a film from the Yashraj camp, the experience has all the crunchiness and intelligence that this genre’s checklist should include.
The ‘whistle-worthy’ instance in this otherwise slick, neat film is well preserved for the climax that clearly shows the mouse its boss. Karan Rastogi’s (antagonist) roots are underplayed throughout. He is fragile and plays the word-games often. He nearly crumbles and sheds a tear or two when Shivani gets closer to his confines.
The opposite ends meet only in the final sequence. The film does away with any clinical twist. The suspects are always known. Their whereabouts are the biggest question marks. The narrative is an integration of multiple cat and mouse chases. Rani Mukherjee brings to the fore, her composure and also does ample justice to the mass motivating acts with the stunts and the punchlines, playing close to the trailer of her skills that No One Killed Jessica captured to good effect.
As an example of a film that deals with a social menace like child-trafficking, Mardaani disappoints with its lazy detailing. The alluringly coated masala is what it aims to sell and that’s surely worth the buy.
Review by Srivathsan N. First published in Cinegoer.net
