"This is India!"
Hello everyone!
Because yes, yes I am!
I can never stay away from Bollywood for long.
I mean, I'm still not quite over the last movie I watched, but that's beside the point, as right now, tonight, I'm picking one of the newer ones.
And one of the ones with a female lead I absolutely ADORE.
Rani Mukerji is just -chef's kiss- I have to watch more of her work. She's amazing.
So without further ado, let's hop right into the drama of tonight's movie of choice.
Because that's what we're getting with Mardaani.
Mardaani is the first in a series of three movies produced under the YRF banner, and oh man did I LOVE IT.
It's properly disturbing, of course, but that's basically why it's so great.
Mukerji plays a senior inspector of the Crime Branch (Mumbai Police, natch) named Shivani Shivaji Roy (her name gives me the LOLs, IDK why) and successfully pulls off an operation that gets them a perp they've been after for a while, even though her chief is annoyed she took so many risks.
The fun part here is when she comments someone has to take Chief's wife shopping so that EVERYONE can have some peace and quiet!
But anyway.
She lives with her husband and niece, and frequently checks in with a teenage girl named Pyaari (and no, this isn't the cute cat that's taken the internet by storm, though they share the name) whom she rescued from being sold by her family.
So when her niece tells her Pyaari seems to be missing, she sits up and takes notice.
Initially, her search uncovers nothing, but then she slowly starts to figure out that someone's been watching the boarding house, and when they grab the guy, he gets shot IN THEIR CAR.
Telling them they're on the right track.
From there on out, it's a cat-and-mouse game between Shivani and Karan, the guy who's behind everything, aka the kingpin who runs the human trafficking ring which specializes in - hold your stomach contents - kidnapping children to sell to the highest bidder, specifically girls, because of course that's what sells best.
I'm disgusted just writing this.
Unfortunately, Pyaari isn't spared the experience, BUT, Shivani is hot on her tail, catching one of Karan's middlemen (a car dealer, and honestly? When they're wondering how the hell Karan moves drugs through the country, I'm like, my brothers and sisters, IT'S THE CARS, pls be serious here for a second) and actually saving his life from Karan, which prompts the guy to turn coat so fast he lives stitches behind.
There's apparently an older guy who runs the operation, but Shivani's like: no, the guy I talked to on the phone (because Karan called her, trying to bribe her first) can't be older than twenty-five.
That's how she clues into the fact this is a much bigger operation, and also why Karan spreads false information to accuse her husband of molesting a female patient, trying to get her to back off.
Unfortunately for him, even her husband is like, you GOTTA catch this guy, when they get one of Pyaari's fingers in a box one day, and so she goes after the old man who's the apparent leader.
She teams up with cops in Delhi, going to infiltrate through drugs rather than trafficking, figuring out correctly that Karan will expect something like the usual tricks so she just has to outsmart him.
And because he went after her husband, she goes after his mentor, and the mentor ends up pulling the trigger on his own life rather than spilling any beans, but Shivani knows she's onto something here.
The problem? Delhi police consider the case closed, since it was only about the drugs.
She doesn't, though, and asks the cop buddy to help her track down a prostitute - former prostitute, I should say, who knew the old geezer back in the day. Shivani walks into her house, unarmed and alone, and gets drugged because said prostitute? Is Karan's momma, and the old geezer was his poppa.
She wakes up only to be tied with a bow so a minister can come in and rape her at a party where the other girls are - she's RELIEVED to see Pyaari's alive and sort of well - but Shivani's like, not me, bastards, takes control of the situation, and threatens real bodily hurt to the minister if Karan doesn't obey her every word.
Then she proceeds to tell him that his prejudice in thinking cops are essentially idiots made it all too easy; she prepped a hidden blade in her shoe before going into his house, after staking it for 48 hours and learning everything she could, knowing the only way she's getting to Pyaari is if she lets herself be caught.
So that's exactly what she did.
Then she proceeds to beat the hell out of him, leaving him for the rescued teenagers to hit as hard as they can, too, because in India, if fifty people commit a crime, it's not murder, it's public outrage.
The rest of the ring gets caught and Karan dies on the way to the hospital, and the movie ends with Shivani victorious, but with a real-life note saying just how many people go missing in India specifically every single day, and what a problem human trafficking remains.
But Rani KILLS it in this role, and delivers it with punch after punch, ensuring you never forget Shivani Shivaji Roy. When everyone else tells her to calm down and step back, let things go, she refuses, and fights for the underdog like she's never fought before.
The story is gripping, dark, and has moments of lightness sprinkled throughout to ensure it doesn't turn into anything too macabre, although the reality behind it remains ever-present.
It's a constant reminder that when Bollywood WANTS to do something right, it can damn well do it.
10000/10 recommend!
xx
*images and video not mine
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