Mardaani

Shivani Shivaji Roy, a dedicated and brave police officer with Mumbai Police, chases a Delhi-based kingpin, Karan Rastogi, who runs an organised crime cartel involving child trafficking and drugs. Her aim is to hunt him down and rescue a teenage girl, Pyaari. Pyaari is an orphan who is kidnapped by Karans men. Shivani had saved Pyaari from being sold by her uncle and started taking care of her, and since then Pyaari is like a daughter to her. She takes the task more personally and goes beyond her legal rights and duties to nab Karan and save Pyaari.

Karan, aware that Shivani is continually monitoring his cartels activities, phones her, suggesting she not interrupt his business. Determined to catch him, Shivani uses intelligence inputs to track down his associate in Mumbai, who leads her to Karans close aide, Wakeel, in Delhi. Karan, as a warning to Shivani, dismembers one of Pyaaris fingers and sends it to Shivanis house wrapped in a gift box, and gets Shivanis 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. As the decoy drug dealers are negotiating the deal with Wakeel, Shivani barges in with other police officers and intercepts the area.

While Karan escapes, Wakeel realises hell get arrested, which means the police would interrogate him and eventually capture Karan. He therefore tries to erase evidence by destroying his mobile phones SIM card, then shoots himself.Shivanis continued investigation and the information from her sources leads her to Karans house, where Karans mother sedates her. Shivani is abducted and brought to a party organised by Karan. There, she meets Pyaari; Pyaari and the other girls are forced to work as prostitutes.

Shivani singlehandedly confronts the situation, forcing Karan into a small room and rescuing and taking the girls with her. She challenges Karan to fight her when he teases her for being a woman and beats him badly. Sensing that he might escape the law, given the corruption in the police and judicial system, she hands Karan over to the girls, who beat him to death. His other gang members are arrested and prosecuted.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 wont 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, praising the use of the films 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.