'Mardaani 3' review: Rani Mukerji’s cop action drama stumbles

There is something immensely satisfying about watching a strong idealistic woman bash a misogynistic baddie on screen. As she delivers one knockout punch after another, you want to applaud and cheer her on. Blame it on the world we live in where we’re confronted daily with horrifying crimes against women that make us root for heroes whose takedown of criminals on screen offers a cathartic release. After all, films deliver results that reality rarely does! That feeling gets stronger when the actor in question is someone as impactful as Rani Mukerji. Here is a performer whose rare movie appearances makes you wonder why we don’t see more of her. 

Thankfully, with Mardaani, Rani has a franchise of her own in which sinks her teeth into the author-backed role of badass cop Shivani Shivaji Roy who takes on psychotic villains. The previous two films, released in 2014 and 2019, received good reviews and a fairly decent run at the box office though that still begs the question whether it warrants another "instalment". But we live in a Bollywood era that cannot boast of original ideas so here we are in 2026, watching Shivani confront yet another depraved antagonist.

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However, this time there is a twist. Shivani’s opponent is a woman, Amma (Mallika Prasad) whose vile actions prove that brutality, at times, is not bound by gender. It’s an interesting idea to explore—a woman taking on another for unspeakable misdeeds against their own tribe. If only director Abhiraj Minawala had stuck to it and expanded on the psyche of such individuals and the context in which they grow and thrive!  

Mardaani 3’s opening sequences are quite intriguing. Set in rural India, it follows two young girls who mysteriously go missing, suspected to be victims of a beggar mafia. One of them is the daughter of an ambassador while the other is a commoner. The scenes and the set-up, though predictable, are engaging and gritty. When Shivani enters the scene, you know that these girls will have a saviour. As it turns out, one kidnapping leads to a far larger plot of girl child trafficking led by the mysterious Amma and her gang. 

A well-made first half

To be fair, the first half of the movie is well made, keeping you invested in Shivani’s story and Amma’s schemes. The latter, especially, is a scene stealer, her kohl lined eyes and swagger, evoking a sense of dread and fear. Though her menacing portrayal feels exaggerated, Prasad is a consummate actor who makes you believe in her cruelty. She is a worthy rival to Shivani and the face-off between the two ladies is pretty interesting. Most of the time Shivani cracks clues to the cases in a ridiculously easy manner, but that’s a minor gripe. Until this point, Mardaani 3 is on-point with its messaging and thrills. 

And then the curse of the second half strikes. Post-interval, the film takes a whole new route with a new villain introduced who is related to Amma but still operates in a universe of his own. It is this character’s machinations that drive the actual crime that Shivani is investigating. On paper, this twist might have worked, but its staging is so ludicrous that it leaves you wondering if you’re still watching the same film.

From here on, Aayush Gupta, Deepak Kingrani and Baljeet Singh Marwah’s story and screenplay scatter in multiple directions. While the motivations remain loosely tethered to the issues raised in the first half, they are pushed to such far-fetched extremes that the real issue is completely diluted. What began as an engaging, grounded thriller that asked questions about crimes against women soon slips into a '90s filmi zone,  complete with a near-caricatured villain, a shadowy foreign hand, action set pieces, swaggering struts in aviators and absurd, over-explained scientific experiments.

Somewhere in this confused bubble, the core message of the film still manages to surface—about how the value of a life shifts when the victim is a VIP versus an unknown, unnamed casualty of similar violence. It shows how the entire system and state machinery spring into action when the daughter of an influential person is kidnapped, while the same system fails miserably to safeguard children of a lesser god. Incidentally, in this film, the driving force behind such atrocities is not patriarchy or weak law enforcement as one might expect, but greed and capitalism. Yes, the movie even makes a statement on that front.

With so many themes bubbling over, the makers seem uncertain about how to meaningfully integrate them all. The script then falls back on the oldest trick in the book—the monologue. Shivani lectures the goons, questioning the treatment of women even as she beats them to a pulp. What could have been a hard-hitting and powerful commentary on systemic violence is reduced to yet another run-of-the-mill actioner designed to spotlight Shivani’s brilliance. This is a familiar template for mass films which, in itself, isn’t wrong (it worked well for the franchise earlier), but as always, it’s the execution that matters. Especially when you compare it to similarly themed yet far better-crafted shows like Netflix’s Delhi Crime. From gritty to weird, Mardaani 3’s downward slide is rather stark.

Cardboard characters

What makes it still worthwhile is the performance of Rani Mukerji. Whether she’s mouthing well-worn lines about the state of women and children in the country, the all-pervading misogyny and the invisibility of the poorer sections of society, Rani is in top form. Her diminutive physique may not fit the conventional ‘cop look’ but her terrific screen presence, conviction in dialogues and steely determination in her eyes keep you glued to the screen.

The same cannot be said about the rest. Most of them are just cardboard characters without any flesh or meat. The focus on Shivani and Amma reduces the others to mere props and this includes Janki Bodiwala (impressive in Vash and Shaitaan) whose poorly-sketched supporting police officer act falls flat. The main culprit is Amma’s partner-in-crime (revealing his identity would be a spoiler) who is so weakly written and enacted that one actually misses Tahir Raj Bhasin and Vishal Jethwa, the villains in the previous two Mardaanis who made quite a splash.

Seriously, for all her experience and evolution, someone please give Shivani Shivaji Roy more compelling cases and better adversaries to crack! 

Rating: 2.5 stars

Cast: Rani Mukerji, Janki Bodiwalla, Mallika Prasad, Jisshu Sengupta

Director: Abhiraj Minawala