Mukherji acts as a tough cop hunting sex traffickers.
By Tathagata Mitra
BANGALORE: The trailer for Mardaani, Rani Mukherji’s first film since Aamir Khan’s supernatural thriller Talaash, with the exception of the short segment in Bombay Talkies has released on YouTube to a huge response.
The image of Mukherji as a tough-as-nails cop in this film seems to be a favorite of the audiences, like her role was in the semi-biographical thriller No One Killed Jessica.
Released two days ago, the trailer has already crossed more than four lakh viewers. The trailer wastes no time and immediately jumps into the topic of the film, an issue so alarming that simultaneously more than three films are being made on it: child trafficking.
The trailer starts out with glaring facts and figures like ‘India is the world’s hub for child sex trafficking’, ‘Nearly 40,000 children are abducted every year’ and ‘Every 8 minutes a girl child goes missing in India’ with interlaced footages of child trafficking in action.
In walks Shivani Shivaji Roy (played by Rani), a senior inspector in Crime Branch Mumbai. Together with her team she sets out to hunt down the members of a drug and child sex trafficking ring who have kidnapped a young teenage girl named Pyaari.
The film has a pretty dark and grueling tone, almost like that of Anurag Kashyaps’s Ugly. Scenes present in the trailer already promise much violence and depiction of sexual abuse. This is very far from the usual type of films produced by Yash Raj Films, but it looks as if the production house is moving to more mature plots these days.
The film has a young mysterious antagonist who is the leader of the trafficking ring Mukherji is set to destroy. Neither the face of the actor, nor the name of the actor has yet been disclosed but it looks as if Yash Raj is bringing in a new actor in the form of an antagonist.
Mukherji’s portrayal of her character seems to promise one of the most badass cop characters in the film industry where the role of badass cops are mostly taken up by men in films like Dabangg and Singham. She shoots, slaps, punches, and does whatever it takes to complete her mission in recovering the young girl. Other female cop characters who have made a difference include Madhuri Dixit in Khalnayak, Preity Zinta in Sangharsh and Sushmita Sen in the Seven inspired Samay: When Time Strikes.
Mardaani, directed by Pradeep Sarkar, releases in theaters on August 22.