Mardaani

Mardaani
Directed by	Pradeep Sarkar
Written by	Gopi Puthran
Produced by	Aditya Chopra
Starring	Rani Mukerji Tahir Raj Bhasin Jisshu Sengupta
Cinematography	Artur Zurawski
Edited by	Sanjib Datta
Music by	Songs: Shantanu Moitra Background Score: Karthik Raja
Production company	Yash Raj Films
Distributed by	Yash Films
Release date	22 August 2014 (2014-08-22)
Running time	111 minutes
Language	Hindi
Box office	₹35 crore (US$4.2 million)(Two weeks nett)

Mardaani (English: Fierce Female) is a 2014 Bollywood crime drama social problem film directed by Pradeep Sarkar and produced by Aditya Chopra. The film stars Rani Mukerji in the lead role, with Jisshu Sengupta and Tahir Raj Bhasin appearing in supporting roles.

The film tells the story of a female cop whose interest in the case of a kidnapped teenage girl leads her to uncover secrets of human trafficking by the Indian mafia. The film released to positive reviews from critics and proved to be a commercial success.

Plot

Shivani Shivaji Roy, a dedicated and brave police officer with Mumbai Police, chases a Delhi-based kingpin, Karan Rastogi, who runs an organized crime cartel involving child trafficking and drugs. Her aim is to hunt him down and rescue a young teen girl, Pyari. She takes the task more personally and goes beyond her legal rights and duties to achieve her aim as she's very close to the girl she wants to rescue. Karan, aware that Shivani is continually monitoring his cartel's activities, gets in touch with her on phone, suggesting her not to interrupt his business. Shivani is determined to catch him. Using intelligence inputs, she tracks down his associate in Mumbai, who leads her on to the Karan's close aide Wakeel, in Delhi. In a gruesome and brutal incident, Karan dismembers one of Pyari's fingers and sends it to Shivani's house wrapped in box as a gift. He also gets Shivani's husband abused and thrashed.

Shivani travels to Delhi and sets up a trap involving decoy drug dealers from Nigeria, who pretend to offer very expensive rare South American cocaine to Karan and Wakeel. When the decoy drug dealers are negotiating the deal with Wakeel, Shivani with other police officers, barges in. While Karan manages to escape, Wakeel finds himself in a situation where he senses he would definitely get arrested. He figures that if he gets arrested, the police would interrogate him, leading to Karan's arrest. He, therefore, tries to destroy evidence by destroying his mobile phone's SIM card and then shoots himself.

Shivani's continued investigation and the information from her sources leads her to Karan's house, where Karan's mother sediates her. She is abducted and brought to a party organized by Karan. She meets Pyari at the party, where Pyari and other young girls are forced to work as prostitutes. Shivani single handedly confronts the situation and forces Karan to an enclosed space, also rescuing and taking those girls with her. She challenges Karan to fight her, where she hits him badly. Sensing that Karan might escape the law, given the corruption in policing and judicial system, she hands over Karan to the girls, who beat him to death. His other gang members are arrested and prosecuted.

Cast

• Rani Mukerji as Shivani Shivaji Roy
• Tahir Raj Bhasin as Walt aka Karan Rastogi
• Jisshu Sengupta as Dr. Bikram Roy
• Anant Vidhaat (sharma) as Sunny Katyal
• Priyanka Sharma as Pyari
• Prashant Sutar as Mushtaq
• Akhilesh Verma as Police
• Vikrant Koul as Inspector Mathur
• Mikhail Yawalkar as Balwinder Singh Sodhi
• Avneet Kaur as Meera
• Saanand Verma as Kapil
• Aman Uppal as Mattoo
• Mona Ambegaokar as Meenu Rastogi
• Anil George as Vakil

Development and Production

Yash Raj Films production directed by Pradeep Sarkar has Rani Mukerji in the lead and Mukerji is seen in an all-new bold role. Bengali film actor Jisshu Sengupta was cast in the role of Mukerji's love interest.

In January 2014, Rani Mukerji who is playing the role of a crime branch officer in the film met Mumbai Police Crime Branch chief as part of research for her role. It was speculated that her role was inspired by IPS officer Meeran Borwankar, who was also an investigation officer in the Mumbai 26/11 case. For her role, Mukerji trained in Krav Maga, a street-fighting, self-defence system developed for the Israeli military.

Soundtrack

#	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1	"Mardaani Anthem"	Sunidhi Chauhan	05:04

Release and marketing

The official trailer of the film was released on June 24, 2014. The Central Board of Film Certification required that the use of a Profanity and scene depicting rape of a teenage girl be removed from the trailer.

Because of the film's social message and the impact it can provide to Indian women, the film has been given tax free status in Madhya Pradesh by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in its first week of release. This was followed by Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra also giving the film a tax free status.

In Pakistan, Central Board of Film Censors gave the film adult Certificate but objected on few scenes. The Board asked for seven cuts and wanted certain scenes to be blurred but the film makers were of the view that "it would lead to loss of the essence of the narration of the movie" and hence decided not to screen this movie in Pakistan.

Critical reception

Mardaani received positive reviews from critics.

Mid Day gave Mardaani 4 stars and said that Pradeep Sarkar offers a pragmatic and compelling story of what it is to chase down the bad guy with Rani Mukerji at her mercurial best as an inspector who simply won't give up. They have also appreciated the supporting cast saying they have been justifiably cast.

Subhash K. Jha of SKJ Bollywood News gave the film four stars, prising the use of the film's soundtrack, saying "Mardaani cleans out the noises and yet retains a high decibel of authenticity in the complementary relationship between sight and sound".

In a review by Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama stated "enacting the part of the tough-talking cop who goes in pursuit of those who run the sex trafficking ring, Rani strikes a true to life, forceful pose and also lends her character the much-needed intensity, strength and dignity. The agony that drives her forward is visible on her face and is one of the prime reasons that makes this story easy to swallow."

Box Office

Mardaani proved to be a box office success.

External links

• Mardaani at IMDb