Are female cops different from male cops? At least in the way they are shown in commercial films and series? An example of this can be found halfway through Mardaani 3. Top cop Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukerji) is tense in a hospital lobby after her husband was attacked by the antagonist Amma (Mallika Prasad). What should she ideally do as both a woman and an officer?
When Shivani receives a tip about the villains, the scene pauses for a microsecond, the camera glances at the emergency room, and then she gets up and walks out. She does so because Shivani is the hero of the franchise, not the heroine. Minutes later, she is seated in the same fashion but outside a morgue. It’s not her husband but somebody else that’s the victim this time, and Shivani has tears in her eyes – something that a Chulbul Pandey (Dabangg) never would.
So, Rani Mukerji has a tendency to ‘ungender’ her roles. In No One Killed Jessica, she played a hero equivalent who arrives to rescue a damsel in distress (Vidya Balan). She even gets a hero-walk in that film, which continued through her future films, including the sober Hichki and, of course, Mardaani.
The idea is intriguing, though it is both a boon and a bane for a film like Mardaani 3. It is a boon because Mukerji does everything a male hero would and gets away with it. It is a bane because it sometimes threatens to strip Shivani of the natural sensitivity a woman brings to situations that provoke fear, anger and sorrow, which was my primary issue with Mardaani 2. There, she delivers a monologue that, while logical, makes it clear that it was written by a man.
The threequel fares better in this regard. In Mardaani 3, Shivani has very little lightness, except for brief banter with her husband Vikram (Jisshu Sengupta, a lovely actor). Unlike Mardaani, there is no roadside exchange with sunglass sellers or a Vijayashanthi–Malashri-style scene to establish Shivani’s machismo. Abhiraj Minawala’s film, written by Aayush Gupta, knows that Shivani is a familiar figure and is, therefore, faithful to the franchise’s restrictive template.
The Mardaani series, as you might know, revolves around girls going missing under mysterious circumstances. This time, the syndicate is led by its queenpin (Prasad). The appeal of its specificity lies in the rage generated by the shock of value, contrasting with something like Drishyam, where the focus is on concealing a single crime over time.
In Shivani’s investigations, we are not invested in how she decodes the trail leading to the villains. We would rather be more invested in rescuing the victims. This is also the reason why the antagonists have often been more compelling than the protagonist, despite uniformly strong performances. Mardaani 3 attempts a shift when peripheral characters repeatedly ask Shivani, “How do you know?” She just knows, Minawala’s film asserts.
This time, Shivani genuinely outwits the antagonists. Amma receives a solid arc, and Mallika Prasad delivers a committed performance, but the ferocity Vishal Jethwa brought to Mardaani 2 is missing here. Unlike Jethwa’s Sunny, who was a pure psychopath, we get sob stories for Amma and another villainous counterpart. I would any day prefer Walt (Tahir Raj Bhasin), Meenu Rastogi (Mona Ambegaonkar) and Vakeel (Anil George) from the first film, who were into crime purely for profit.
On the plot front, Mardaani 3 repeats the same story as its predecessors, yet it does not become a major deterrent. If the villains are set aside, the film is crafted better than the previous edition, though it never achieves the authenticity of the 2014 original. This is when we identify the slow Yash Raj-fication of the set formula.
One of its positive effects is a conscious refusal to ship hate. Mardaani 3 introduces diversity by having people of all faiths occupy all roles – cops and criminals alike. There are no clichés of the ‘achcha musalman’ or forced religious sermons, which seem mandatory in Hindi cinema today.
The negative effect arises when, after a taut first half that explores themes of classism through a kidnapping incident, the film becomes ambitious. Gupta cuts the second half from the same cloth as Pathaan and Tiger Zinda Hai. While there is nothing wrong with such screenwriting, Mardaani 3’s attempt to inhabit that space is weighed down by a string of contrivances.
Clues fall conveniently into Shivani’s lap. For instance, there’s a child with a critical health condition frantically making a couple of paintings, only so that our lady could decode them. It’s the second week in a row (after Border 2) that children are almost forcefully made to paint so that the film can move ahead.
The film also introduces an odd mother–son dynamic. Within a commercial framework, it works, but the son’s characterisation is too thin for his menace to feel convincing, even if Minawala’s direction eventually makes us accept it. However, it is heartening to see Shivani reunite with colleagues from the first Mardaani, turning the film into a genuine franchise entry with recurring traits and personalities. This only underlines how Mardaani 2 lacked a single memorable supporting character.
Formally, Mardaani 3’s craft differs sharply between its halves. The first hour uses intimate hand-held camera movements that closely track Shivani, creating urgency. The latter half adopts theatrical staging. A laboratory scene plays out like an amateur stage drama, with rigid blocking, gazes into the ceiling and exaggerated expressions. A young female cop is introduced as a distraction. The idea works on paper, though the casting does not.
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Mardaani 3 ’s strongest technical asset is Artur Żurawski’s cinematography, which is clearly drawn to Mukerji. Beyond the action-heavy passages, he frames her with care. In simple mid-shots, soft light falls on her face, her eyes glow, and her expressions come alive, reinforcing the emotional intent of this dialogue-heavy film. Editor Yasha Ramchandani’s framing is equally effective, keeping the narrative engaging even when the writing stretches credibility with masala flourishes.
A special mention must go to the costumes by Eka Lakhani, Gunpreet Kaur Mann and Deepali Singh Raseen, which further shape Mardaani 3 ’s universe and help the actors inhabit their roles. The dialogues are largely impactful, barring moments when the script slips into archaic metaphors about raths and saarathis.
Without an iota of doubt, Mardaani 3 solely rests on Rani Mukerji’s able shoulders, and she is outstanding once again as Shivani. Her anger and resolve feel real, and anyone familiar with Mukerji’s rich filmography can see why this franchise with a pro-women narrative matters to her. Extending the gender-reversal motif, Shivani becomes the ‘man’ of the household while her beta male husband smiles shyly in the background. Is that why the series is called Mardaani? Perhaps.
Janki Bodiwala, despite a substantial role, comes across as robotic. This is less her fault than a miscasting issue. The twists involving her character Fatima are entertaining but never fully satisfying, and her ambiguous half-smiles only add to the confusion.
Mallika Prasad’s Amma is a striking discovery, performed with authority and energy. Prajesh Kashyap (Ramanujan) is intriguing in the first half, only to fizzle out badly in the second. Mikhail Yawalkar and Digvijay Rohidas, who reprise their roles from Mardaani, are solid as they never become Shivani’s sidekicks, but able compatriots.
The final act of Mardaani 3 is staged in Colombo. This stretch is the film’s most entertaining, offering catharsis reminiscent of Ek Hasina Thi. As order is restored and Shivani strides away like a Bollywood icon, the film moves beyond “female-led heroics” to embrace the swagger of a hero who happens to be a woman.
This way, it stands as the most commercial entry in the franchise, surpassing Mardaani 2 despite less effective villains. Convenient and formula-bound as it often is, Mardaani 3 remains a rousing, watchable experience powered less by logic than by the unshakeable will of its leading lady.
VERDICT: ★★★ 1/2
Read more reviews of Mardaani 3 by The Film Critics Guild HERE.
