As Mardaani 2 completes a year, Rani Mukerji speaks why the franchise is important for everyone
Rani Mukerji’s cop-avatar in the Mardaani franchise has always got everyone to sit back and take notice of it. While Mardaani had got everyone surprised in 2014, last year Mardaani 2 shocked and gripped the nation with its brilliant storyline. Inspired by shocking true crimes against women by juveniles, the edge-of-the-seat thriller saw Rani in a race against time to capture a brutal serial rapist who systematically targets women. The film received incredible appreciation from media and critics and took the gritty female-cop franchise forward in leaps and bounds.
As the film completes a year today, Rani emphasised Mardaani is important to her not only because it talks about women empowerment but also it’s an informative film as it projects a lot of things women need to be aware of. She added that Marddaani as a franchise gives a lot of hope and courage to women. She said they set out to make the film with certain aspirations and to see them being fulfilled was really heartening. She revealed the reaction she got from female cops across India was overwhelming, to say the least. “They have reacted to the portrayal of Shivani Shivaji Roy, which they feel is very positive and it showcases the entire gamut of things that they have to deal with during the course of their lives and career. The credit for that should actually go to the writer and those who have envisaged Mardaani as a franchise which is Adi, Gopi (Puthran – director and writer), Pradeep da (Sarkar) put together because I think the fact is the actors get to portray a character only when it’s a written and fleshed out well.”
Rani maintains that for cops, the battleground is everywhere, whether it’s day or night. Also, hers wasn’t a supernatural portrayal where she was beating up 20 goons all by herself. The Mardaani franchise enables Rani to bring startling realities of society out in the open. She says the most disturbing aspect is that it’s not ending. “These incidents are not getting over and done with. No matter how much we do, we still have to do much more. The film is just a small drop in the ocean of things that need to be done for this cause.” True that!