I watched the movie because I wanted to know what was being shown as mardana or masculine in a woman.
I found the beginning so disturbing, that at first I wanted to walk out of the theatre. The friend I was watching it with felt the same way – but I am glad we didn’t do that – because when you really think about it – what’s not so disturbing about child trafficking?
How did we ever expect to watch a ‘rape scene’ or children being abducted and sold, without feeling the horror of the crime?
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is the only other movie I have seen where a sexual crime is shown the way it should be shown – humiliating, disgusting and traumatic. This is how such crimes should make us feel. [The Marital Rape scene in Bhag Milkha Bhag]
Mardaani does not show how the men ‘buying sex’ were feeling, there was no attempt to titillate. What we felt was the terror that the little children were feeling. Their being given new names and their being viewed as ‘goods’. And as the movie progressed it did make sense.
I will never be able to think of prostitution or child trafficking without remembering the faces, or the shaking hands of the children in Mardaani. We need movies like this undo the damage and desensitisation that ‘rape scenes’ have done in the past.
I also think the movie makes a point about fitness for women and general empowerment for women.
I hope the movie does well, it’s fast paced, well edited and for those who like action (I don’t) there is action too.
couldn’t could see why the movie has been named ‘Mardaani’ (translates to – a woman who is like a man)
Senior Inspector in Crime Branch – Shivani Shivaji Roy is a woman.
She is strong and she is shown working out.
She is working hard and at all hours, but she has a happy family life.
She does not go home and start cooking.
Her family loves, supports and respects her.
Their name plate has the names of both of the couple.
Inspector Shivani Shivaji Roy seems to have retained her maiden/father’s name as her middle name (I hope we see movies where there is no name changing at all, for either partners).
And her husband is shown feeling feelings that can’t be described as ‘mardaani’.
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Does the movie pass the Bechdel Test?