Mardaani 3, Daldal — It's a week of cop-thrillers

Make that *women-led* cop thrillers ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Mardaani 3: The Rani Mukerji Film Gets The Job Done

For the most part, Abhiraj Minawal’s outing finds a sweet spot between what the film is forced to be (another rendition of Mardaani ) and what it can be within the restrictions, Ishita Sengupta reviews.

Dir: Abhiraj Minawal

Cast: Rani Mukerji, Janki Bodiwala, Mallika Prasad

Playing in: Theatres

BACK IN 2014, Pradeep Sarkar’s Mardaani, a police procedural drama on child trafficking, was a clutter-breaker among an assembly line of romances. A sophisticated villain was pitted against a female cop as the clash between them expanded into an ego tussle. In 2026, Mardaani is a franchise and police procedural dramas headlined by women are everywhere. The novelty of the premise has chipped away, but Mardaani 3 refuses to change.

This is both a good and a bad thing. Mardaani 3, directed by Abhiraj Minawal, is more of the same. Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukerji), the famed police officer, is handed a case of missing girls. A little probing reveals that there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Standing on the other end is Amma (Mallika Prasad), who runs a nexus of a beggar mafia across Delhi. Given that the franchise has built a reputation for propping up the nemesis at par with the protagonist (both Tahir Raj Bhasin and Vishal Jethwa broke out as villains), Prasad’s sinister turn as a woman who will stop at nothing imbues Mardaani 3 with a familiarity that runs the risk of inducing fatigue.

From gritty chases to explosive showdowns — dive into Simmba, Khakee, and Bad Boys for Life. Stream the ultimate cop thrillers now on OTTplay Premium, available on JioHotstar, Sony LIV, Discovery+, FanCode, and 25+ platforms.

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Bhumi Pednekar's Daldal Is Dreadfully Dull

Daldal straddles between a procedural drama and a psychological spectacle without committing to either. It assumes a similar unidirectionality even when convinced there is more than meets the eye.

Dir: Amrit Raj Gupta

Cast: Bhumi Pednekar, Samara Tijori, Aditya Rawal

Streaming on: Prime Video

ON PAPER, Amrit Raj Gupta’s Daldal is a foolproof show. A female police officer, troubled by her past, is pitted against a serial killer who is no less tormented. In an equal world, they would be friends, perhaps even allies. But being born to different circumstances results in choosing different paths, even though the journey looks the same. Gupta’s work puts them on opposite ends of the morality spectrum only to unmask the sweeping immorality surrounding them.

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This is not the most ingenious premise (season 2 of Delhi Crime hinted at something similar), but there is still a lot going on for Daldal. Suresh Triveni, director of Tumhari Sulu (2017) and Jalsa (2022) — disparate but compelling films — is the showrunner. Bhumi Pednekar plays the police officer — the role written with a kind of emotional wringer that is a remarkable shift from her previous excessive portrayals. There is an informed choice of revealing the killer at the start and sustaining the intrigue through the ‘why’ of the killing, expanding thus the scope of the series, and finally, there is a moving love story between a girl and a boy, and even though the latter is an addict, it is she who is obsessed.

— I.S.

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