Surprise! Encore to the Bollywood Movie Marathon: Mardaani

Dec. 27: Mardaani (2014). 113 min. Directed by Pradeep Sarkar. Produced by Aditya Chopra. Starring Rani Mukerji, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Anil George.

I originally chose to watch this movie because it was less than two hours long. I also wanted to watch it because I knew it had a woman in the non-sexualized lead role (wooo feminism!), and it dealt with child sex trafficking in India, which is a huge illegal industry in India and elsewhere. The main character was a strong, even-tempered woman named Shivani Shivaji Roy, the senior detective of the criminal branch of the Mumbai police. When her twelve-year-old niece's close friend goes missing, Shivani suspects that something sinister is afoot, and dives deep into the world of organized crime, drug kingpins, and sex trafficking. Mukerji's character was great because she was so bad-ass, so smart, so caring...she wasn't an "oversensitive" detective with "too much personal at stake to keep a level head," as many women are expected to be. Shivani was the most intelligent and calculating character in the entire movie. There's even a scene where she works out. I don't think Mukerji had any makeup on at all in this movie.

There was very little of the usual cheesiness of Bollywood cinema, with the exception of maybe a couple of characters and one or two scenes. I think that lack of ridiculousness added to the serious tone of the film. The filmmakers didn't sugarcoat sex trafficking.

There was one moment in this movie where I was like "hell yes." I almost screamed it. My hand was in a fist, I pulled my arm down in a victorious yessss like this meme child. 

 That  moment was around the middle of the movie, where detective Shivani Shivaji Roy told the head of the police force that waiting for rape to happen isn't the way to prevent it.

English translation of what they said:
Police chief: "You know what Shivani? You're being unnecessarily emotional."
Shivani: "So one should only get emotional after girls are raped? What's the point in holding a candle in the march after everything's over?...You know what sir? The day our police force gets emotional for these girls, no one will dare to harm them."
Police chief: "Enough Shivani!"

If anything, the police chief was being the emotional one. He was the one who shouted, "Enough!" after Shivani explained calmly and rationally that the police should care what happens to women and girls who are forced into prostitution. This scene was, hands down, my favorite part of the movie. Shivani's is such a powerful statement to make, because it reveals the lack of prosecution against crimes against women in India. The police chief's sense of security was threatened: Shivani's spiel made him uncomfortable, as it rightly should. You should feel uncomfortable, you should feel upset when oppressed groups don't get the justice they deserve. Men are more likely to believe a man when he says he was robbed than a woman who says she was raped/harassed/terrorized/etc. (#patriarchy) Men are more likely to take action in response to a robbery than to the violation of a woman, which the film sort of touches on.

Major "India is great" moment: uh...the end where the kidnapped girls (not going to spoil it). Maybe when Shivani says "This is India." I can't really say that India's image was portrayed in a positive light in this movie. 

Theme of the movie: Good vs. Evil; Corruption vs. Justice.