Spoilers ahead…
In the opening stretch of Mardaani, the camera peers at traffic from the back seat of a car, fuzzy taillights in the distance – it’s all very verité. In the front are two men we quickly recognise as cops. They stop to pick up a colleague, Shivani (Rani Mukerji), who’s dressed in a sari – she looks like your average housewife. And then we see that the cops are in mufti too. Their joshing banter tells us that they’ve done this a lot – the camaraderie is casual. But once they reach their destination, it’s business. They pull out guns and get ready to do what they’re here to do. It’s all very hush-hush – even the background score. We’re primed for a “realistic” thriller – and then we discover we’re inside a regular hero-versus-villain saga. Only, this is a heroine-versus-villain saga. Mardaani does to the masala movie what the Tamil film Goli Soda did earlier this year – it serves it up with a cool twist. There, the protagonists were children, and the fun came from seeing them do what our big action heroes regularly do. Here, the protagonist is a woman, and it’s equally fun to see her slip into the kind of film (and role) that could have easily accommodated Salman Khan. Shivani is a stickler for workouts, and, at the end, she even shrugs her shirt off.
Coming a week after the dreary Singham Returns, Mardaani is essentially a demo on how to do this kind of film with class and a certain sensibility. The larger-than-life aspects are all there. After a big win, Shivani strides towards us in slow motion. She lets loose a series of crackling lines. When hauled up by her superior, she turns to her colleagues and says, “Sir ki biwi ko koi shopping le jao yaar.” Another time, she refuses the bribe of a 35th-floor flat, explaining that life would become too difficult if the lift shut down. In a most entertaining scene that Salman Khan’s writers are going to kick themselves for not thinking up, she slaps a havoc-wreaking goon while rattling off the various IPC sections she’s going to throw at him. (And she respects her uniform. When her colleagues tell her that it’s not their job to get involved with this goon because they’re “Crime Branch,” she tells them that they’re police first.)
In addition, we get all the clichés from the masala movies. At different times, the soundtrack swells with the Hanuman Chaleesa as well as an azaan – and the “good Muslim” trope gets a surprising spin, through a character we come to identify, initially, as evil. (Shivani feeds this character, Rahman, some biriyani and he gives her the information she needs, but he then says, “Bachche ke liye kiya, khaane ke liye nahin.”) When we are taken near the villains, it is through a shot of a chameleon – nothing in our cinema insinuates evil more than a tongue-flicking reptile.
And yet, Mardaani is more than just your average masala movie – at least the ones we see these days. There’s something very human, very womanly about Shivani – and not just because we see her in the kitchen or combing her 12-year-old niece’s hair. When her enemies end up hurting her husband (Jisshu Sengupta), she doesn’t gnash her teeth in rage. She regards him sorrowfully, realising that the poor chap’s plight is entirely her doing. (And with his character, the gender reversal is taken to its logical conclusion. He’s mere arm candy to Shivani and as disposable to the proceedings as Kareena Kapoor is in Singham Returns – and he doesn’t even get a duet.) Even when Shivani issues her I-will-get-you threat to the villain (“Walt,” played by Tahir Bhasin; the name is an homage to his favourite TV show, Breaking Bad), it’s a tough moment imbued with vulnerability – a tear rolls down her cheek. Shivani knows what’s at stake.
And there is something at stake, something that makes us root for Shivani in a way we never did for Singham. The latter’s enemies were corrupt politicians and godmen, and we’ve had enough of those (and they’re too distanced from us) – but Shivani is up against a child trafficking ring that kidnaps young girls and sells them as “Julia” and “Angelina.” The very fact that Shivani is a woman makes her “emotional” about this (as Walt mockingly points out), but there’s more. She’s foster mother to her niece, and one of the kidnapped girls, a flower seller, is someone she rescued a while ago. Could a male cop be as “emotional” as Shivani, given these circumstances? Sure. But he probably couldn’t feel it from the gut, the way she does – the prospect of being raped, of being sexually abused, is never a possibility in his case (and Shivani comes dangerously close). Rani Mukerji is reliably terrific, and her stature (or lack of it) adds to the performance. A bigger actress may not have seemed this vulnerable. As for whether she’s believable as this ass-kicking cop, if we are able to believe that men fly through the air and knock down opponents fifty feet away, then there’s no reason we shouldn’t buy the scenes where Shivani pursues assassins, or goes womano a mano with Walt at the end. (Besides, at 1.60 m – thank you, Wikipedia – she stands as tall as Lucy Liu, and we all know what mayhem the latter unleashed in Kill Bill.) These films – whether Singham Returns or Mardaani – are essentially escapist fantasies that feed on our powerlessness, and here, for a change, we see a woman use not just her intelligence and her wiles (as, say, Vidya Balan did in the similarly female-oriented Kahaani and Bobby Jasoos) but also her strength. That, I think, is a step.
Strangely, it’s this evenhandedness – this attempt to strike a balance between the worlds of Shivani the heroine and Shivani the woman – that makes Mardaani a little queasy to watch. In a traditional hero-oriented masala movie, the archetypes are so brazen that we don’t take much of it seriously (other than as entertainment, of course). But here, the director Pradeep Sarkar is after shades of realism. He forces us to watch how horribly the barely pubescent kidnapped girls are treated, how they are stripped naked, how they are viewed as mere “virgin” bodies – these scenes fit into a blood-curdling drama like Nagesh Kukunoor’s Lakshmi, but they come off as exploitative in such a broad, escapist entertainment that’s not really about an issue. And yet, this is when we get an idea of Walt, his heinousness. Sarkar does something very interesting. Walt and his cohorts aren’t the usual underground dwellers, people who come off to multiplex goers as the “other,” and are therefore easier to accept as killers and kidnappers. (Again, the gruesome villains of Lakshmi come to mind.) They are the kind of people you find at the multiplex – urbane, upper-crust. They are the demons within us. And Tahir Bhasin plays Walt beautifully. His face is in the shadows at first, and as he exposes himself to Shivani, he slowly comes out into the sun. And he has his vulnerabilities too. Like Shivani, he suffers loss too, he sheds a tear too.
What a difference it makes when villains are treated like human beings rather than ogres. Another character, one of Walt’s underlings, gets a spectacularly vulnerable (that word again) moment as he’s about to be shot. The supporting cast is fantastic. Sarkar doesn’t just point and shoot – like Rohit Shetty. He shapes his material. Even the traditional montage of Shivani interrogating possible witnesses is done so that each person is framed against a different setting – they’re not just talking heads; we get glimpses of their lives. I wish the latter portions had been written better (there’s also too much exposition), and that the background score was less insistent – but Sarkar brings it all in under two hours and still leaves us with the satisfaction of having watched a full-on commercial Hindi movie. He doesn’t shy away from the grime of it all. He even goes for the expletives. Between Singham and Shivani, there’s no question who’s got the bigger balls.
KEY:
* Mardaani = manly; a brave woman
* Goli Soda = see here
* slow motion = see here
* “Sir ki biwi ko koi shopping le jao yaar.” = Someone should take the boss’s wife out shopping…
* Hanuman Chaleesa = see here
* azaan = see here
* “Bachche ke liye kiya, khaane ke liye nahin.” = I did it for the kids, not for this food.
* Kill Bill = see here
* Lakshmi = see here
* bigger balls = see here
Copyright ©2014 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Baradwaj Rangan 
MANK
August 23, 2014
Brangan – bigger balls- Man , tears in my eyes ROFL ing, the kind of twisted brain you got sir- to give this kind of twist to the concept of *BIGGER BALLS*
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MANK
August 23, 2014
Brangan, i have not seen this film and wasnt intending to either – as it was coming from the horribly regressive Pradeep sarkar of Laga chunari mein daag infamy.Also for the similar reasons you mentioned about Rani’s stature – ‘As for whether she’s believable as this ass-kicking cop,’ – I have seen the trailers and wasnt all that convinced, it looked rather cheesy. Even though i am a great fan of Rani’s performances – Hey ram, Black,KANK, Talaaash, …..- This film didnt seem worthy of her- as all of her yashraj films are-But now after your review, it seems that its worth checking out.Reading your review, i get the feeling that her character and the film is inspired from Jodie foster in Silence of Lambs. Did you fell like that?
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brangan
August 23, 2014
MANK: It’s funny you mention “Silence of the Lambs” because one scene — where Rani is *this* close to the villain — reminded me of that film. This is a more generic film, so no comparison really. I felt it was more an attempt to put a female spin on our “Singham” type of films than to do something like “Silence…”
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Ashutosh
August 23, 2014
Key for bigger balls is ridiculously funny.
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Maru
August 23, 2014
Like MANK this was a film I’d not expected to watch (in part for the same reason – the unfortunate Laaga Chunari!), but your review Brangan, may persuade me to look for it on DVD! I was wary of the very overt “Mardani” exhortation to women in the promotions. But even more so the exploitative element showcased in the previews put me off, much like Dirty Picture did. That film exploited the Silk Smita story in much the same way as her films did – except it was couched as a “real” tale.
Brangan, the “bigger balls” line had me chuckling but I think there’s one in this context that tops yours. I just finished watching the finale of the tele series The Honorable Woman in which Janet McTeer’s character as MI6 chief when questioned about how she pulled off such a fantastic outcome says, “Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that in a room full of pussies, I’m the only one with a vagina,”
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Abhirup
August 24, 2014
Sure, this is better than ‘Singham Returns’. But that’s not saying much, is it? I think there is a defensive tone to this piece of yours, in the constant comparisons to the Rohit Shetty movie. If a movie is really good, you wouldn’t have to make a case for it by pitting it against something irredeemably poor, would you? Personally, I think you were so benumbed by ‘Singham Returns’ that when this comparatively watchable movie came along, you applauded it wholeheartedly. Which is okay; I have the same myself, multiple times. But in this case, in spite of having watched ‘Singham Returns’ and thinking little of it, I also found ‘Mardaani’ to be quite underwhelming.
I think that Pradeep Sarkar couldn’t quite make up his mind about what kind of movie he wanted to make: a masala cop film like ‘Khakee’ and Dabangg’, or a serious procedural like ‘The Stoneman Killings’ and ‘Kahaani’. As a result, on one hand, there are the punchlines (though few are memorable, and the one that is–“Under nineteen team ka twelfth man”–is overused) and the fight scenes (again, none that stands out, not even the climactic one) that we find in a masala film. On the other hand, there are the “verite” bits, like the opening shots you mentioned, the sex trade scenes, the nitty-gritties of everyday police work, and so on. The resultant tonal shifts marred my enjoyment. There is neither anything as entertaining as Chulbul Pandey’s antics in this movie, nor anything as darkly engaging and disturbing (in a good way, if you know what I mean) that characterize the best of noir-thrillers. The movie hangs uncomfortably in between these two kinds of films, both worthy in their own right, unable to belong to either group.
Also, there is no suspense in any of the set pieces. Be it the raid at the beginning of the movie or the one in which the guy they called “waakil saab” died, the way the sequences are staged isn’t very impressive. That point where Shivani is standing only a few feet away from Karan could have been such a nail-biting sequence, but Sarkar doesn’t use it to that effect. And isn’t it a little unbelievable that Shivani and the other policemen do not check the interiors of the cars (in one of which Karan is hiding) parked in front of the shady establishment before going into the building itself? These considerations of logic can probably be overlooked in a masala outing, but these portions of ‘Mardaani’ are shot like a realistic thriller, so these shortcomings kinda stick out. Which, in turn, point to what I have said in the previous paragraph: the movie’s inability to decide what kind of movie it wants to be.
This inability is best manifested in the climax. There is, first, a reasonably clever maneuver by Shivani to free herself from her predicament, the kind of maneuver that fits in the kind of gritty procedural that some parts of the movie resembles. Then, there is the masala film one-on-one. I wish Sarkar had gone one way instead of trying to have it both ways. And to be frank, I found the death of the villain ludicrous. “Public outrage”? Is that the best they could come up with?
Finally, the performances didn’t quite do it for me either. I am not saying Rani Mukerji is a disappointment, because she isn’t, but nor is she as effective as Vidya Balan in ‘Kahaani’. I was never as invested in Shivani’s fight as I was in Vidya’s in that film. Whether this is more Rani’s fault or the script’s, I am not quite sure, but I doubt if Shivani is going to be remembered as one of the best of our onscreen cops. As for Tahir Bhasin, I didn’t buy him as a menacing villain at all. His baby-face looks prevented me from taking him and his threats seriously. I know the juxtaposition of his youthful looks and criminal nature is deliberate, but it doesn’t have the intended impact. The actors who played “waakil saab”, Karan’s mother, and that guy called Mattu are all more effective antagonists in my view.
I have other things to say as well, but these are the chiefs points why ‘Mardaani’ didn’t do much for me. Again, I, too, preferred it to ‘Singham Returns’, but I feel ‘Mardaani’ could have been way better with a proper screenplay and superior actors. Hopefully, those things would be remembered when they make the next cop saga in Bollywood.
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brangan
August 24, 2014
Maru: Yes, the exploitative element is there, but then that’s always been a part of these films. Take “Dirty Harry.” At the end, the psycho villain hijacks a schoolbus filled with adorable kids adorably singing “Old McDonald had a farm…” This is exploitative because we are automatically primed (as viewers) to feel more for helpless kids than adults. The film wouldn’t have carried the same wallop, say, if a grocery store clerk had been held at gunpoint.
See the key to this film — IMO — is not to view it as a something classy — but as something massy done with a bit of class. So the “idiocies” inherent in the average mass-oriented blockbuster are very much part of the fabric of this film.
Abhirup: Sure, this is better than ‘Singham Returns’. But that’s not saying much, is it?
I think it *is* saying much. The way I saw this film is in this line: Mardaani is essentially a demo on how to do this kind of film with class and a certain sensibility.
Unlike you, I had no “gritty Hollywood-style procedural” expectations after the second scene (and Rani’s ceetee-worthy dialogues). I just saw it as the kind of movie Akshay or Salman would have done but with a genuine director at the helm.
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susruthanvesh
August 24, 2014
Reblogged this on (.dDufferSs.).
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Abhirup
August 24, 2014
“I think it *is* saying much.”
I think we part ways here. To me, ‘Singham Returns’ is so bereft of any merit that I don’t think it takes much to make a movie better than that. It’s like calling a comedy “better than ‘humshakals’.” Or finishing ninth in a race of ten competitors, and consoling yourself that you are at least ahead of the guy who finished tenth.
“Unlike you, I had no “gritty Hollywood-style procedural” expectations after the second scene”
Well, in my case, the movie created those expectations by bringing a deliberately “verite” feel to many of the subsequent scenes, and then following those scenes with masala moments. That mix put me off, as I said.
“I just saw it as the kind of movie Akshay or Salman would have done but with a genuine director at the helm.”
For that, I shall stick to ‘Khakee’ and ‘Dabangg’.
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brangan
August 24, 2014
Abhirup: I am not saying I enjoyed this film because only because it is better than “Singham Returns” — in which case your “Humshakals” analogy would be valid.
I found this to be what that kind of film could have been had it been made with some care and class. And I genuinely liked the gender reversal — it worked for me. It added that little something to the film.
I agree that “Dabangg” is a much better film of this type.
I part ways with you on “Khakee,” which is not this kind of masala at all. That’s a very serious and very genuine masala movie — not at all a superhero-swagger kind of film.
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MANK
August 24, 2014
Brangan, you are right about Khakhee, perhaps that was the last ‘very serious and very genuine masala movies’ that was made in hindi ,period! – cant remember another one right now unless you count Vishal bharadwaj films like Omkara.
Speaking of Khakee- whatever happened to Rajkumar Santhoshi who used to make these ‘very serious and very genuine masala movies’ as you put it. Ghayal,Legend of bhagat singh,china gate etc were wonderful. And even the ones that werent great – pukar,lajja, ghatak- his conviction and craftsmanship was unmistakable.When there is such a revival of masala film fare recently, his absence is really conspicuous.
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Abhirup
August 24, 2014
I see what you mean, Mr. Rangan, and I think I should make my position a little clearer.
You said “I agree that ‘Dabangg’ is a much better film of this type.” When you say “of this type”, you are (correct me if I am mistaken here) putting ‘Dabangg’ and ‘Mardaani’ under the same category. This is because, as you said in one of your previous comments, you had no expectations of this being a serious procedural after the first few scenes, and had settled for a masala outing. For me, though, that didn’t happen. In my view, ‘Mardaani’ kept going back and forth between scenes that essentially show Shivani as the female counterpart of Bajirao Singham (such as the scene where she single-handedly stops the goon in white shirt and slaps him continuously while rattling off IPC sections) and scenes that are way grimmer (such the ones where the fates of the kidnapped girls are shown, or the one where Shivani’s husband is harassed) that do not belong in a masala movie. Plus, the first of the movie, at least, has the format of a procedural as opposed to that of an actin movie, with Shivani and co. gathering evidence, interviewing and keeping an eye on suspects, trying to reach the main culprits by apprehending people in the lower rungs of the criminal chain and then moving up, and so on. In other words, the step-by-step nature of investigation is shown to us. The second half is very different, in that it goes for full-on heroine-giri, with Shivani getting things done way too easily, a la a masala movie protagonist. These shifts in tone–now a noir-like procedural, now a masala movie–are what hampered my viewing experience. The other things about ‘Mardaani’ that didn’t do much for me–the lack of suspense in set pieces that should have evoked it, the poor climax, the performances that are strictly so-so–I have mentioned in my very first comment here. But it is mainly the tonal shifts that jarred me.
As for the gender reversal, I think films like ‘Kahaani’ and ‘Bobby Jasoos’ have done that before, and better. In both of those films, it is a woman who is at the centre of the proceedings, and the men are all either her assistants, playing secondary roles, or are antagonists who end up thoroughly defeated by her. The only difference here is that Shivani, unlike Vidya Balan’s characters in those films, gets full-fledged fight scenes. But that alone doesn’t make this worthwhile, in my view. Shivani, her physical powers notwithstanding, is simply not as memorable as Vidya Bagchi and Bilkis/Bobby. Those characters I cared for. With Shivani, I didn’t particularly, because: (i) that same reason: I couldn’t decide if she is an indestructible masala heroine, or a flesh-and-blood figure like us, and (ii) she doesn’t have any traits worth noting and which endear her or render her very interesting. She is a cop: that’s all there is to her. That this cop is a woman is, in itself, not enough for me. There has to be something other than her work to make her memorable.
I do agree with what you have said about ‘Khakee’, though. It is indeed a different kind of masala film than ‘Dabangg’, and I think I shouldn’t have named the two together as I had.
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Abhirup
August 24, 2014
*other than her gender.
Sorry for the typo.
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neetarai
August 25, 2014
I think hardcore Vidya Balan’s fans cant digest Rani or her success. Hence the continuous nitpicking.
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Abhirup
August 25, 2014
neetarai, being a fan of Vidya Balan doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate other actresses. Rani Mukerji has been a favourite of mine for a far longer period than Vidya, and I bought the ticket for the first day first show of ‘Mardaani’ precisely because I wanted to be among the very first people to watch a movie that stars her in the lead role. But admiring an actress doesn’t mean going gaga over anything and everything she does. So, in spite of being a Rani fan, I had to acknowledge that ‘Mardaani’ has its shortcomings, just as in spite of being a Vidya fan, I had to admit that ‘ghanchakkar’ and ‘shaadi ke side effects’ are disappointments. So, next time, don’t resort to silly assumptions about why people are speaking less-than-favourably about a movie. Their reasons may be completely different, and far more valid, than you think.
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Rahul
August 27, 2014
The deal breaker for me was that I never got the feeling that anything is at stake. Yes, the girl pyaari is with the bad guys, but Rani does not feel seem to feel or convey that constant sense of foreboding- and so I did not feel anything. I mean, even when she gets the finger delivered to her, she sobs for a bit and then is back to her cool demeanour.
It may be convenient to blame Rani but I think the director should take the blame for this.
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ramitbajaj01
August 27, 2014
But Rahul, isn’t that a personality trait that even if goings get tough, you don’t lose ur nerves and try to stay calm and cool, because that is required for ur efficiency and clear thinking? That I think Rani projected very well, a character that is consistent throughout.
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Rahul
August 27, 2014
Ramitbajaj, firstly, would she have behaved like this if her own sister in law was kidnapped ? So, what Walt said kind of rings true that she is not “beti“ but “beti jaisi.“ – hence the stakes are not high enough for high drama. Secondly, the argument is not that such a person can not exist – but that cinematically its a less compelling watch . I have not seen Singham returns but I think that situations like these do not need to be underplayed – it needed a bit more drama.
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ramitbajaj01
August 28, 2014
I didn’t think that way. I really enjoyed the low key involvement of Rani for Pyari. In fact, that was just a cause to unleash her deeper instincr- to go after goons; that’s where the drama was coming from, for me. I reckon that you would have reacted the same way if her niece had been kidnapped. For, she didn’t overreact when her husband was humiliated or when he threw awaay the plate. She is such a wise and calculated person. It was thrilling to watch her.
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ramitbajaj01
August 28, 2014
She* would have reacted, not you. (typo, sorry)
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brangan
August 28, 2014
ramitbajaj01: Yes, that was how I felt about Rani’s character too. Even if the niece had been kidnapped, she wouldn’t have reacted any differently — and the key to this conclusion is in the scene where her husband is harassed. Here too, as I noted in my review, her reaction is very low-key, understated.
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Amit Upadhyaya
August 31, 2014
The climax of the film, which is strangely being called melodramatic, came from Deewar’s iconic scene at the docks. The ‘chaabi from the jeb’ scene. That scene gave us the Angry Young Man, an anti-hero.
This one, I think, gives us the Angry Young Woman, an anti-heroine.
Sarkar’s biggest achievement seems to be the fact that he has been able to root an essentially escapist fantasy in a very specific context! That really is the film’s biggest victory for me.
As far as the film is concerned, I think it’s as tightly constructed as a thriller as Kahaani was. In our mainstream, that’s no small feat.
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Rahul
September 3, 2014
ramitbajaj, BR – , I got conflicting signals from the screenplay. For example, Rani`s thrashing of the political goon, the event that led to her husband being framed was a typical Chulbul Pandey style act . Her jokes with her colleagues point towards her natural tendency or forced effort to fit in with the guys. And the title of the film is Mardaani. The film is not ,at least not coherently, trying to present a parallel interpretation of the typical police inspector
It would have worked for me if the film took either path unambiguously – a female police inspector who excels at her job by her feminine qualities (then it wouldn’t be called Mardaani) or a Lady Singham.
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AndazApnaApna Deserves Oscar :D
September 4, 2014
Thanks for the wonderful review/opinion piece on Mardaani – Bharadwaj saheb 🙂
However, on this one I agree with Abhirup main viewpoint, that the movie was neither here nor there.
What worked for me – It was engaging despite several faults (1st half had no dull moment) + Rani Mukherjee
What didnt work for me –
1. Its all too easy for the cop to decode the case
2. Not convinced the movie deserved a female cop (I like Rahul’s premise – “female police inspector who excels at her job by her feminine qualities”)
3. Editing – Lack of balance – it was crisp (plus point); but may be too crisp (weakness – where there is no place for emotions to settle in)
But, I am so glad this movie was made and with a female lead and chose Rani Mukherjee (disclosure – I am Vidya Balan fan).
My input for discussion 😉 – imagine the movie where the female cop excels in her traditional strength. Leave the violence to her assistants – including slapping the goon (a cop who is aware of her own strengths / weaknesses). Makes her hard to get hold off for all antagonists too.
Almost, a game of chess with everybody is a pawn apart from the cop & 12th men – just a thought bubble 🙂
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ramitbajaj01
September 4, 2014
Why does Chulbul or Singham need to be a male inspector? Are they doing anything that only males do? You say dishum-dishum? But the kind of stunts they perform is not imitable even for the best cops of the world. These are generally larger-than-life characters. And they can be rendered by a female actor as well. Perhaps, that is what Mardaani is trying to say.
Dabbang type movies are genre masala movies, yet they need to be grounded in reality. That is why Chulbul retains his son-ness while talking to his mother and Shivani retains her femininity while helping her niece with ponytail.
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AndazApnaApna Deserves Oscar :D
September 9, 2014
@ ramitbajaj01 – truly interesting perspective, thanks…
Interesting enough – it makes me wonder now why did the villain in Mardaani have to be a male?
Why isnt Mardaani trying to say the same for the all other male characters in the movie?
I guess you get the drift …
In summary – its just that all main characters need to be believable (whether its masala or realistic movie), for some odd non-logical reason – Mardaani didnt convince.
If all we have got is because Dabangg has male or why cant it be female – then the core issue remains, is it believable.
Hence, i like the idea Rahul suggested – if you gonna have a female cop excels via the female qualities….
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ramitbajaj01
September 9, 2014
Well, if 300 part 2 can have a female villain against a male hero then why can’t Mardanni have it the other way round?
And there are shades. We can’t have everything in one movie.
For female winning with feminine qualities, we have Kahaani ( evoking sympathy out of pregnancy, seducing the cop etc.). Or perhaps even The Dirty Picture.
For female against female, Sita aur Geeta?
If we want to stick to masala movies, then you never know, tomorrow we may have a movie meeting different audience expectations.
The point is – proportional represenation is always welcome. And it was long due in Bollywood, considering we already have the likes of Kill Bill and Salt in Hollywood.
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ramitbajaj01
September 9, 2014
I have not seen Gulabi Gang, does it make the cut for any discussion here?
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Apu
September 10, 2014
I think Rahul and Andaaz… state a typical problem that a section of the audience have with a woman in a traditional male role. My question to you two – why do we have a need to show a women succeed by “feminine” qualities only? Why is it so unbelievable that a woman can fight? Why does a film need to go the Singham or feminine trait way – why can’t a film show a woman in a traditional man’s role doing the “normal” thing that men do – is that so hard to accept?
To sum up – why does a “woman-centric” movie need to either make a point or succumb to caricature? Can’t a movie just exist and be appreciated for the fact that it was made well and yeah, had a woman policeman?
Ok, long rant.
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Rahul
September 10, 2014
Apu, my comments were specifically about Mardaani – how it did not work for me and how it may have worked for me. Feel free to enjoy \ interpret the movie in whatever way you want to.
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AndazApnaApna Deserves Oscar :D
September 10, 2014
Sincere apologies to Rahul to drag him into this – sorry dude 🙂
@ Apu & ramitbajaj01,
I can see how it can be perceived that my response was sort a chauvinist view, fair enough.
As i mentioned, for me its about believable characters – its gender agnostic – I just couldn’t believe Mardaani was a capable 1 person (gender neutral word) army, neither were Singham & Chulbul by the way 🙂
My reasoning for feminist qualities were mainly to add more oomph to the scene. Imagine, at Rani’s call — the *male* sub inspectors keep slapping the goon, with Rani interjections on penal codes – where she is the supreme and everybody else is a puppet. I can see how this may not be as uber cool as it seems in my head 🙂
One last attempt – you mentioned Kill Bill — with all Uma goes through followed by her training, etc. — the director spends a significant time to establish a believable / credible character. So, when she seeks her revenge – you support her, you feel the pain and remember it still has all the masala fight stuff one looks for.
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ramitbajaj01
September 10, 2014
If you talk about diving and fighting stuff, then I may understand. But slapping is quite normal yaar. I have seen many such dominating women in real life.
But I get your point that it would still be cool if she only recites the codes and an assistant does the slapping.
Regarding believability, I was hooked right from the start. When she enters that *chawl*, her gait was quite intimidating because she was disguising it under the housewife-y stuff- loose saari, ponytail. Rani’s rendering made sure that we knew *exactly* what is going on, without their speaking it out.
She is also shown to be an exercise buff, so that was enough for me to go along.
Moreover, they stated that the character is inspired from real life.
Also, I was somehow seeing it as a reprisal of Rani’s role in No One Killed Jessica. There also, she was quite sharp and active.
But I realise that if I like chocolate flavour, that doesn’t mean everybody else would too.
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