Mardaani 3 movie review: A Rani Mukerji project that loses steam after half-time

Mounted more than a decade ago as a challenge to the action-hero archetype, Mardaani‘s third instalment begins as a fiercely committed, unflinching crime thriller that delves deeper into the horrors of child trafficking and the begging mafia, delivered with raw brutality and social urgency.

Anchored by Rani Mukerji as Shivani Shivaji Roy, the story centres on a tough cop’s investigation into a high-profile kidnapping that unravels a vast network of child exploitation.

It begins with the abduction of two girls – one from a privileged background and the other from a marginalised one — from the outskirts of a diplomat’s farmhouse in Bulandshahr in western Uttar Pradesh, forcing Shivani to navigate official pressures, criminal syndicates, and moral dilemmas. Do the two lives carry the same weight? Her superiors repeatedly tell Shivani to focus only on the diplomat’s daughter, even after it becomes clear that the kidnapping doesn’t have a political motive but has a social dimension.

Both the system and the syndicate know whose life matters, setting off a game of one-upmanship between two fiery women: Shivani and Amma, the queen of a beggar mafia. While Shivani uses the social difference between the victims to bring the kidnappers out of their shell, she eventually realises that it compromised the life of the guard’s daughter. Finding herself shackled in the uniform, Shivani lets her rage take over the rules of the game.

Director Abhiraj Minawala and writer Aayush Gupta create an imperfect world run by flawed characters. The antagonists, Amma (Mallika Prasad) and Ramanujan (Prajesh Kashyap), have backstories that suggest they are products of the rot they now rule.

But then, franchises are all about reheating the same dish over and over again, hoping it doesn’t lose its flavour. Soon, the veneer of social empathy and feminist tone gives way, and we can clearly see the product’s formula: a fearless protagonist, blended with a hard-hitting social issue, taking on an intense antagonist. The experiment and freshness are limited to the introduction of the villain and their lair. After that, the writers serve Shivani’s image and Rani’s fans. Rani continues to operate in the massy grammar, structured like a counterpoint to the male action stars, perhaps not realising that familiarity dulls impact. The overwriting limits her ability to emote in silence. It borders on forced messaging, where her intensity feels performative.

Unlike the previous instalments, where Tahir Raj Bhasin and Vishal Jethwa were given potent character arcs, here Prasad is short-changed after an ominous build-up where her dynamic with Rani promises a delicious conflict before getting diluted. After pitting a menacing female villain against a strong female cop, it seems the makers realised that the franchise’s stated goal demands that Rani reduce misogyny to pulp, and for that, you need a male antagonist to punch.

As a result, the storytelling and world-building stumble in the second half due to plot holes, overwritten moments, and tonal inconsistencies, such as the foreign conspiracy angle that is introduced late in the second half. We could see the true colours of Ramanjuan from a distance and pretty much guess the job of a young Muslim female police officer in the narrative. As the thriller builds to the climax, the narrative turns feel routine, diminishing tension and resulting in an uneven experience.

Mardaani 3 is currently running in theatres.