You can watch Mardaani for all the wrong reasons and feel underwhelmed. Don’t watch it for Rani Mukerji trying to be a Salman Khan. She’s not. Don’t watch it for true grit or precise realism; this is still a dialogue driven entertainer. Don’t watch it for song and dance, there isn’t any. Watch it for thrills; watch it with a pro-feminist stance. And you could find the right perspective.

It’s not in the same league as ‘Kahaani’ or ‘English Vinglish’, but it still deserves applause for attempting to portray a movie minus Bollywood’s trademark frills. With so much going for ‘Mardaani’, it’s unfortunate that its filmmakers failed to pull it through. That said, we still think it deserves a trip to the cinema just because it’s a step in the right direction.

Mardaani is a better commercial film than most and Sarkar’s best film since Parineeta. However, if there is one solid reason to watch this movie, it’s Bhasin’s Walter-White-as-played-by-Seth-Green act. The young actor, who was impressive even in his brief appearance in One By Two earlier this year, seems like a talent to watch out for. Next time, hopefully, he’ll have more meat to chew on.

Mardaani is too ordinary a film for an emotional and disturbing issue like sex trafficking. It leaves the viewer unaffected and fails to inspire the women to revolt, which is what the film ought to have done. At the box-office, it will not be able to make its mark. A section of the evolved and women audience will like it for the intention behind the film but that won’t be enough for the film to succeed at the ticket windows.

The movie’s sexist title suggests that she has masculine qualities of bravery and honour, but the best proof of her macho side is her indifferent relationship with her spouse. Not unlike the average Indian husband, Shivani prefers the company of others, in this case her co-workers, her orphaned niece, and a teenager, Pyari, who sells flowers at traffic signals. The abduction of this flower girl by a sex trafficking ring deeply upsets Shivani, who launches a personal crusade to save Pyari and whoever else might be in the room at that moment.

A taut thriller that makes you look within.

Rani Mukerji gives the Singhams and Dabanggs a tough competition as she cracks the whip in this Pradeep Sarkar film that entertains in a ‘filmi’ way. If you are a Rani Mukerji’s fan, then you cannot miss out this one.

If you take out the unnecessary woman-on-top chanting in the end, Mardaani is a fine cop drama that brings two Bengalis back in the Bollywood game — Pradeep Sarkar and Rani Mukerji.