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Star Cast: Rani Mukerji, Mallika Prasad, Janki Bodivala, Prajesh Kashyap
Director: Abhiraj Minawala
What’s Good: The crackerjack beginning, middle, and end!
What’s Bad: Nothing really!
Loo Break: Statutory Warning: At your own risk
Watch or Not?: Definitely!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 129 Minutes
User Rating:
The story is set across India, a racket involving the mass kidnapping of pre-pubescent girls. Mostly done with kids of poor families, the kind whose ‘Missing’ complaints may lead to nothing, the gang now unknowingly abducts the child of the Indian ambassador to Turkiye (Eindraneel Bhattacharya), along with his servant’s kid.
Enter Mardaani, a.k.a. Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukerji), who senses something big as there is no ransom demand coming and because two kids (including a humble servant’s child) have been simultaneously abducted; she delves deep into the investigation of the case along with a dedicated team. She soon realizes that behind all this is the demoness Amma (Mallika Prasad), a woman for whom only money matters.
Key figures in the investigation and pursuit of Amma are Ramanujam (Prajesh Kashyap), who runs an old-age home and the Treta Trust for the rehabilitation of kidnapped children, and also Fatima (Janki Bodivala), a valiant junior cop.
The game heats up and becomes especially gripping at the interval point, when a tragedy occurs unintentionally at the hands of Ramanujam while he is helping Shivani on a mission. This only intensifies Shivani’s cold rage toward Amma and steels her determination, even if it means displeasing her seniors, who only want the ambassador’s kid back.
Mardaani 3 Movie Review: Script Analysis
Aayush Gupta, Deepak Kingrani, and Baljeet Singh Marwah have penned the story, and Gupta has done the script and dialogues. The film begins with Shivani presented as a near-superhero, almost like the male YRF Spy Universe, in a superlative action sequence shot in the Sunderbans. The midpoint is another dramatic peak, and the gratifying end is also searing in its intensity. In short, the film is nothing but a high from beginning to end, aided by a consistently mood-inducing background score reminiscent of Neeraj Pandey’s gritty and fast-paced series.
The dialogues are simple and unshowy but stay with us, despite the rare clichéd lines.
Mardaani 3 Movie Review: Star Performance
Rani Mukerji straddles the new film in the franchise, both as a true-blue stalwart cop and an actor, with expressions and steel unmatched. Janki Bodivala gets a role that is a shade complex and impresses. As Amma, Mallika is chillingly demoniacal, her eyes so sharp they can cut! But the ace up the Mardaani 3 sleeve is Prajesh Kashyap as Ramanujam. He plays an interesting role indeed.
The Mardaani franchise has given us memorable debutants like Vishal Jethwa and Tahir Raj Bhasin, and these two new actors are welcome additions in their respective negative and complex roles. The supporting cast is good, but as is usual (and avoidable) with a Yash Raj film, many of the character artists’ names are never known. Some of the characters, like Jimpa (Jimpa Sango Bhutia), are credited, but some key artists’ names are not to be found even on the internet!
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Mardaani 3 Movie Review: Direction, Music
Cinematographer Artur Zurawski and editor Yasha Ramchandani do stellar work because director Abhiraj Minawala, for a decade an assistant and associate director, is a superb captain of this ship, helming the show. He takes the franchise to another level, realistic yet big-scale, again comparable to the Neeraj Pandey series. There is a tight grip on the emotions, which never get out of hand or melodramatic, and the director extracts phenomenal work from all his artists and technicians. If the pace is frenzied, the viewer’s involvement keeps up with it. John Stewart Eduri’s background score is praiseworthy, as stated earlier.
Mardaani 3 Movie Review: The Last Word
This is a whopper of a sequel and is bigger and better, as any such franchise should ideally be!
Four stars!
Mardaani 3 Trailer
Mardaani 3 released on 30 January, 2026.
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