Mardaani

Mardaani
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Pradeep Sarkar
Written by	Gopi Puthran
Produced by	Aditya Chopra
Starring	Rani Mukerji Tahir Raj Bhasin Jisshu Sengupta
Cinematography	Artur Żurawski
Edited by	Sanjib Datta
Music by	Songs: Salim–Sulaiman Score: Julius Packiam
Production company	Yash Raj Films
Distributed by	Yash Raj Films
Release date	22 August 2014 (2014-08-22)
Running time	113 minutes[1]
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹21 crore[2]
Box office	₹59.55 crore[3]

Mardaani (transl. Manly) is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Pradeep Sarkar and produced by Aditya Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films. The film stars Rani Mukerji in the lead role, with Jisshu Sengupta, Tahir Raj Bhasin, and Anant Vidhaat Sharma in supporting roles. It is the first instalment in the Mardaani film series. The narrative follows Shivani Shivaji Roy, a policewoman whose interest in the case of a kidnapped teenage girl leads her to uncover the secrets of human trafficking by the Indian mafia.[4]

The film was released on 22 August 2014 and received positive reviews from critics who praised the script and direction, emerging as a moderate success at the box-office.[5] At the 60th Filmfare Awards, the film received five nominations, including Best Actress (Mukerji) and won Best Sound Design (Anilkumar Konakandla and Prabal Pradhan).[6] A sequel titled Mardaani 2 was released in 2019. A third installment titled Mardaani 3 was released on 30 January 2026.

The film opens with a secret police operation orchestrated by Shivani Shivaji Roy, a dedicated Crime Branch Senior Inspector of the Mumbai Police, in order to catch a pimp named Rahman from his hideout. She barges in with her team and arrests Rahman, and rescues his mistress. Shivani lives with her husband, Dr. Bikram Roy, and teenage niece, Meera. Prior to the film, she rescued an orphaned girl named Pyaari from being sold by her uncle, and started looking after her like her own daughter. One day, Shivani finds out that Pyaari has been missing from her shelter home for five days and begins an investigation, where she finds out that the mastermind behind this kidnapping is a Delhi-based kingpin named Karan Rastogi (Tahir Raj Bhasin), who runs a cartel involving child trafficking and drugs. Shivani takes the task personally, going beyond her job and duties to nab Karan.

Shivani forces Rahman to reveal the names of Karan's associates and comes across Sunny Katyal (Anant Vidhaat Sharma), a car-dealer who operates Karan's trafficking business in Mumbai. Karan discovers that Shivani is monitoring his cartel's activities and tries to have Katyal killed for becoming a liability. However, Shivani saves Katyal, and he agrees to help her nab Karan. Determined to catch him, Shivani tracks down Karan's aide, Wakeel. Karan, angered, makes sure that Pyaari is sold and raped every day. As a warning, he spreads fake news that Shivani's husband has misused his profession as a doctor to molest a female patient, causing Bikram to be thrown off-duty. He then chops off one of Pyaari's fingers and sends it to Shivani's house in a gift box. Meanwhile, Karan's right-hand man Mattu (Aman Uppal) gets a contract to host a party full of prostitutes from a man named Tandon on behalf of a minister in Delhi, Taneja ji. Mattu also kills one of the girls in Karan's brothel at his orders when she contracts dengue, further scaring Pyaari.

Shivani travels to Delhi and sets up a trap involving decoy drug dealers from Nigeria, who pretend to offer expensive and rare South American cocaine to Karan and Wakeel. As they are negotiating, Shivani barges in with her team. While Karan escapes, Wakeel tries to erase evidence by destroying his mobile phone's SIM card, then commits suicide. Shivani and her Delhi-based teammate Balwinder Singh Sodhi track down a tailor who knew Wakeel for a long time. He reveals that a prostitute named Meenu Rastogi was Wakeel's closest associate. Shivani's continued investigation leads her to Karan's house, where Meenu, revealing herself as Karan's mother, sedates her.

She is abducted and brought to Karan's party. There, Shivani reunites with Pyaari, where she and the other girls are forced to work as prostitutes. Karan invites Taneja ji and allows him to rape Shivani. However, she escapes and ruthlessly beats Taneja before taking him hostage. Shivani single-handedly confronts the situation, forcing Karan into a small room and rescuing the girls. She challenges Karan to fight her when he teases her for being a woman and beats him. Feeling that he might escape the law, given the corrupt police and judicial system, she hands Karan over to the girls, who beat him to death. Subsequently, Sodhi and the entire team barge in and arrest Mattu, Tandon and Karan’s gang members. Meenu is also attacked by the girls and gets paralyzed by shock while Taneja survives before being sentenced to life imprisonment.

Mukerji, who played the role of a crime branch officer in the film, met the Mumbai Police Crime Branch Chief as part of research for her role.[7] It was speculated that her role was inspired by IPS officer Meera Borwankar, who was an investigation officer in the Mumbai 26/11 attacks.[8] For her role, Mukerji trained in Krav Maga, a street-fighting, self-defence system developed for the Israeli military.[9][10]

The film's soundtrack was composed by Salim-Sulaiman.[11]

The official trailer was released on 24 June 2014.[12] The Central Board of Film Certification required that the use of a profanity and scene depicting rape of a teenage girl be removed from the trailer.[13] Because of the film's social message, the film was made tax free in Madhya Pradesh by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan within the first week of its release.[14][15] Later, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra made the film tax-free.[16][17]

In Pakistan, Central Board of Film Censors gave the film adult Certificate but objected on few scenes. The Board asked for seven cuts and wanted certain scenes to be blurred, but the film makers were of the view that "it would lead to loss of the essence of the narration of the movie" and hence decided not to screen the movie in Pakistan.[18]

Mardaani premiered at the Kino Muranów theatre in Warsaw, Poland on 29 January 2015, where it received a standing ovation.[19][20][21]

Shakti Shetty of Mid-Day gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "Pradeep Sarkar offers a pragmatic and compelling story of what it is to chase down the bad guy with Rani Mukerji as an inspector who simply won't give up".[22] Subhash K. Jha of SKJBollywoodNews gave 4 out of 5 stars, praising the film's soundtrack, writing "Mardaani cleans out the noises and yet retains a high decibel of authenticity in the complementary relationship between sight and sound".[23] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote, "[E]nacting the part of the tough-talking cop who goes in pursuit of those who run the sex trafficking ring, Rani strikes a true to life, forceful pose and also lends her character the much-needed intensity, strength and dignity. The agony that drives her forward is visible on her face and is one of the prime reasons that makes this story easy to swallow".[24] Rachit Gupta of Filmfare gave 3 out of 5 stars, writing "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".[25] The Times of India gave 3.5/5 stars writing "While there is nothing in the plot that you haven't seen before, it is still watchable for the superb performance of Rani".[26] Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times gave 3 out of 5 stars, praising the cast performances but criticised the climax.[27]

A sequel titled Mardaani 2 directed by Gopi Puthran was released on 13 December 2019.[28]

• Mardaani at IMDb
• Mardaani at Rotten Tomatoes