Mardaani 3: Rani Mukerji's cop action drama stumbles

For all her experience and evolution, someone please give the cop Shivani Shivaji Roy more compelling cases and better adversaries to crack

- Lekha Menon

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.

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.