Mardaani 2 Movie Review: A No-Nonsense film about hunting down a rapist.

Cast: Rani Mukerji, Vishal Jethwa

Directed By: Gopi Puthran

Shivani Shivaji Rao is back after 5 years, and this time the case is shifted from Mumbai to Kota. Then it was Human trafficking, know she hast to pin down a psychopath rapist who brutally rape and murders women. The logline or the pattern of the film is the same. a heroine and a bad guy.

Shivani comes with her own strengths she has the knack of studying a crime scene in the most detailed manner, a trait that her male subordinates detest. In the chase that follows, you are invested in finding out how, and if, Shivani will catch him before he lets the monster out again.

Mardaani 2 is released at this time when in society heinous crime against a woman is increased beyond the extent. And this film creates that kind of aggression amongst the moviegoers that these rapists should be killed.

The storyline is something that caters to the majority of the audience. That scene where Shivani whips away at Sunny with a belt as the camera is panned at her from below (we've seen it in the trailer, so no spoilers here) is disturbing but strangely satisfying. It is perhaps the same 'satisfaction' that makes people take to the streets and say 'Hyderabad Police Zindabaad' when the rapists of the Telangana veterinarian are shot dead in an 'encounter'. T

And these emotions the film helps the makers wanted to encash which doesn't resolve any kind of solution towards society but it makes the film successful which is debatable.

Mardaani 2 begins on a Dussehra night. Amid the festivities, a shifty young boy, speaking a language that does not belong here, gives alms to a beggar and holds forth on the perils of hunger. It is a bottomless pit, he sinisterly asserts, before he singles out a girl who has just had a tiff with her boyfriend and walked away in a huff. He waylays her on a deserted street - but how a road in such a populous town is so desolate on Dussehra night isn't explained. 

Written and directed by Gopi Puthran who wrote the prequel Mardaani. Mardaani 2 builds up tension steadily and races towards a finale that despite being predictable is both hard-hitting and satisfying. On its way there, the screenplay hinges on the criminal pushing his luck with the single-minded, intrepid law enforcer who is determined to make the deviant pay for his sins.

Rani Mukherji has done a terrific performance as a no-nonsense cop who has done the role with sheer honesty. 

Vishal Jethwa a television actor plays the smooth-faced rapist with confidence and a smug swagger which mostly works. Where he goes over the top (and there are some moments in which you can see him lower his guard), he falters. As does the film, which veers between creating a Hollywood style bad guy and a desi villain.

The the killer strikes at will a few more times by not only targeting women but also carrying out a contract killing of a troublesome journalist and then snuffing out the life of a young slum boy who is the sole witness to the crime. He also plays daring games with the SP. In the guise of the juvenile sociopath, Vishal Jethwa, graduating from television to the big screen, presents a chilling portrait of a boy who can kill without batting an eyelid. 

In the context of the crime statistics that stare us in the face, Shivani Shivaji Roy's relentless pursuit of the rapist is not only perfectly in order but also seems entirely necessary. But seen against the backdrop of the recent Telangana encounter case, a lone-ranger policewoman seeking vengeance smacks of advocacy of instant, extra-judicial methods of punishment. Early in the film, the police officer announces that she intends to capture the criminal and bring him to justice. But in the climax, she takes the law in her own hands and uses the boy's studded waist-belt as a handy weapon to turn the tables on him.

One drawback of the script is that Rani Mukerji's character responds more to hunches than to any special powers of deduction. The killer leaves too many clues around for any real mystery to be generated over the nature and motive of the crimes he commits. Yet, thanks to the solidity that the lead actress lends the film and the support she receives from the antagonist, Mardaani 2 is never less than riveting. It steers clear of any narrative device that might undermine its intent - and that is where its power lies.