Star Cast: Rani Mukerji, Vishal Jethwa
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Director: Gopi Puthran
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What’s Bad: Still follows some cliches which could be overlooked for the message the film brings with itself
Loo Break: It’s just a little over 100 minutes & Rani will not allow you to leave your seats
Watch or Not?: Even if you’ve not seen the prequel, go for this without even thinking twice about it
User Rating:
It starts with ‘I know everything’ Shivani Shivaji Roy making a heroic entry to the crime scene. A girl is brutally raped and Shivani bashes her colleague for focusing on the media rather than the case. And she hates the reporters. Investigating the case, she opens up a couple of new ones. A psychopath named Sunny (Vishal Jethwa) is behind all this.
The second half of the film follows Tom & Jerry’s format between Shivani and Sunny. With the obligation of getting transferred, Shivani decides to wrap up this case before she’s gone for bad. The rest of the story is all about how and when she’ll get till Sunny.
Gopi Puthran who penned the story for the prequel dons the double role also as a director for this one. The story follows a similar formula as part 1, with comparatively fewer twists. A psychopath villain who breaks the fourth wall is a very interesting idea, working in favour of the film. The twists penned to give chills land exactly where they should. Gopi manages to keep things in between, to maintain the gray on the canvas. It’s not as chaotic as a Black, not as soothing as a White.
My major problem is a movie like this needs to be treated raw. Can totally get the curse of ‘censor’ but then pen the situations accordingly. If you’re showing something brutal has happened with someone, show the brutal to connect the feeling. If you’re saying he’s a ‘chutiya’ just let it be, we don’t want a ‘dedh-shaana’ dubbed on it. It’ll restrict the target audience but it’ll give us the feeling to linger on for a longer time as compared to this. It goes into the ‘morality’ cliche zone at times, concluding with a whole news segment towards the end.
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Rani Mukerji carries forward the fire in her from the prequel. She loves to be Shivani Shivaji Roy and that’s why it comes as so believable on screen. She deserved better dialogues but balances this liability with her act. Another memorable performance!
Vishal Jethwa brings in the chills to the narrative with his superlative performance. A brilliantly sketched character portrayed with an equal amount of creepiness. A mixture of sympathy & empathy, Vishal’s manipulative character Sunny is created to make you hate him. But, he somewhere has a bit of human alive in him which plays with your mind.
The supporting cast could’ve been better but the makers’ main focus is just on the above two leads.
Gopi Puthran from the debut scene creates an atmosphere that screams ‘we are living in a shithole of a society’, and it helps the film. The more you go into the narration, the more it disturbs you from within. Puthran manages to capture the outrage happening in real and depicts it as a disturbing episode on-screen.
John Stewart Eduri keeps the background score subtle and it’s good for the set-up. Not too loud, not too silent and goes with the flow. Special mention for the makers to keep this at just a little above 100 minutes and without any song.
All said and done, Mardaani 2 is a disturbing yet a required watch. It’s tightly packaged & you may not like what’s in it but you’ll have to take a look because it’s happenings for real. Kudos Rani Mukerji, Vishal Jethwa & the team for showing us the mirror.
Three and a half stars!
Mardaani 2 releases on 13th December, 2019.
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