Mardaani 3 (2026)

TLDR: Mardaani 3 is the third and final chapter of the Mardaani franchise, released on January 30, 2026. Rani Mukerji returns as SSP Shivani Shivaji Roy to crack a chilling case involving 93 missing girls caught in a beggar mafia and illegal medical experiment racket. The film is a solid, gritty crime thriller with strong performances — especially from Rani and newcomer-villain Mallika Prasad — but the second half loses steam and the script gets predictable. It’s a worthy one-time watch, and now streaming on Netflix.

I’ll be honest with you. When I heard Mardaani 3 was happening, I had mixed feelings.

The original Mardaani (2014) was a masterpiece of raw storytelling. Mardaani 2 (2019) raised the bar even higher with Vishal Jethwa’s terrifying villain. So when a third film was announced, the question was simple: can they do it again?

After watching it, here is my honest answer — almost.

Mardaani 3 is not a perfect film. But Rani Mukerji makes sure it is never a boring one either.

Mardaani 3 — Quick Movie Details

You can check out the official IMDB page for Mardaani 3 for full cast and crew credits.

What Is Mardaani 3 About?

The film opens in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. Two young girls — Ruhani, the daughter of a diplomat, and Jhimli, the daughter of a domestic helper — are abducted while playing hide-and-seek. It’s the kind of opening scene that immediately puts you on edge.

Meanwhile, SSP Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukerji) has just wrapped up dismantling a trafficking operation in the Sundarbans. She gets pulled into this new case and quickly realizes this is much bigger than a kidnapping.

In just three months, 93 girls between the ages of eight and nine have disappeared — almost all from poor families, the kind whose missing complaints often go nowhere. The case leads Shivani to Amma, the ruthless queen of a beggar mafia network.

But as she digs deeper, a far more disturbing truth surfaces. The girls are being used as test subjects in illegal experiments involving a mutated virus to speed up cervical cancer drug trials. Those deemed unsuitable are killed.

It’s dark. Very dark. And that darkness is exactly what gives the film its power.

Cast and Characters

The full cast details are also listed on the Letterboxd page for Mardaani 3.

A New Director, A Fresh Perspective

This time, Gopi Puthran — who wrote and directed Mardaani 2 — stepped aside. Abhiraj Minawala took the chair, and Aayush Gupta (fresh off the international success of Netflix’s The Railway Men) wrote the script.

That change in creative team is both the film’s strength and its weakness.

Minawala brings a restrained, grounded approach. He doesn’t try to out-do the previous films on shock value alone. Instead, he builds tension slowly through atmosphere, character dynamics, and the sheer weight of the case. For the first 70-80 minutes, it works really well.

The cinematography by Artur Żurawski captures everything with a cold, grim look that fits the subject perfectly. John Stewart Eduri’s background score keeps the urgency alive throughout. Filming took place across Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana, Noida, Pondicherry, and even Colombo — and you can feel that scale in the final act.

But the writing stumbles in the second half. The plot adds twist after twist, and after a point, the twists start undercutting each other. What begins as a tight, grounded thriller starts feeling like it’s trying too hard to surprise you.

Rani Mukerji — Still Unstoppable

Let me say this clearly. Rani Mukerji is the best thing about this film by a mile.

She plays Shivani not as a superhero but as a worn-down, angry, determined officer who has seen too much. There’s a scene where she gets suspended and removed from the case — and instead of giving up, she forms her own team unofficially and chases the criminals to Colombo. That kind of stubborn, righteous fury? Rani sells it completely.

NDTV’s Saibal Chatterjee gave the film 3.5 stars and described Rani’s work as one of the finest performances of her entire 30-year career. I have no argument with that.

Mallika Prasad as Amma — The Franchise’s First Female Villain

This is the part I was most excited about going in. Amma is the first female antagonist in the Mardaani franchise, and Mallika Prasad does not disappoint — at least in the first half.

What makes Amma interesting is that she is not written as pure evil. She’s a product of a cruel system. A survivor who learned to survive by being even more ruthless than those around her. That nuance makes her more frightening than a typical villain.

But as the film moves into its final act, her character loses some of that menace. The script doesn’t give her enough space to stay terrifying throughout. By the end, she feels more like a piece on a chessboard than the dominant force she was in the opening scenes.

Firstpost gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, specifically praising Mallika Prasad’s performance alongside Rani’s. That praise is well deserved, even if the writing doesn’t fully hold up her character’s momentum.

What Works and What Doesn’t

Here’s my honest breakdown:

What works:

The opening act is gripping and moves at a brisk pace. The central case — girls used as medical test subjects — is genuinely disturbing and emotionally compelling. Rani’s performance carries the entire film on her shoulders. The background score and cinematography are top notch. The Colombo sequence in the final act adds a sense of scale that the franchise hadn’t reached before.

What doesn’t:

The second half slows down noticeably. Too many twists pile up near the end and some of them feel forced. Janki Bodiwala, despite being billed as a key cast member, feels underused for most of the runtime — even though her character’s final reveal is impactful. The villain’s screen time shrinks when it should be expanding. And the ending feels too neat for the darkness of the story that came before it.

Times of India gave it 3.5 stars and summed it up well — a solid franchise outing with flaws, saved by Rani Mukerji’s performance.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 60% Tomatometer score with an average rating of 6.4/10 from critics. On IMDB, the audience rating is a much more generous 7.5/10 — which tells me the general audience, especially fans of the franchise, enjoyed it more than the critics did.

Box Office Performance

Mardaani 3 was made on a budget of ₹60 crore. It earned ₹75.17 crore at the worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing film in the entire Mardaani franchise — surpassing both the original and Mardaani 2.

That said, it fell slightly short of fully recovering its investment during the theatrical run, with an estimated deficit of around ₹7 crore domestically. Competition from other releases like Border 2 also played a role.

Still, becoming the franchise’s biggest earner is no small thing.

The Controversy

Right around the film’s release, a report circulated about 800 girls going missing in Delhi. It was eventually linked to what Delhi Police described as a paid publicity effort coinciding with the film’s release.

Yash Raj Films denied any connection. The Delhi Police warned that creating panic for profit would not be tolerated.

Whether there was any actual link is unclear. But it’s worth knowing about if you have heard this story floating around.

Where to Watch Mardaani 3

Mardaani 3 arrived on Netflix on March 27, 2026. If you missed it in theatres, you can now stream it comfortably from home with a Netflix subscription.

For more Hindi OTT releases, Bollywood reviews, and streaming guides, head over to HDMovies4U — we cover everything new across Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, and beyond.

My Final Verdict

Mardaani 3 is a good film. Not a great one. Not the best in the franchise. But definitely worth watching.

If you loved Mardaani 1 and 2, go in with slightly lower expectations and you will come out satisfied. The central story is chilling, the performances are excellent, and there are moments in this film that genuinely hit hard.

Just don’t expect the same raw, relentless gut-punch of the first two parts.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. A solid, gritty closer to one of Bollywood’s best crime franchises, held together by Rani Mukerji doing what she does best.

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