Finally watched it! Just in time for the sequel. And it was way more fun than I expected, some grittiness but also a lot of satisfying heroism.

The thing I liked about the hero of this film is that she was never doubtful. Almost every action movie, especially the ones filmed in the gritty realistic style of this, have a moment when the hero doubts him/herself. Is it worth it, should I continue, will I succeed, etc. etc.? That is especially true with female lead films. The moment when their frail womanliness makes them break down and some nice man has to come and buck them up and encourage them. I kept waiting for that to happen here, but instead Rani was like a force of nature. Always moving forward, never doubting, never wrong, never weak. Very unusual, very refreshing.

What made it especially satisfying is that our villain Tahir Raj Bhasin was so confident within himself, and so evil. He kept making fun of Rani, and doing terrible terrible things, sure that it was going to scare her off and make her doubt. But instead, it just made her more determined.

The dynamic of the film was a clear mother-child flavor. Rani calls him “son” and he calls her “ma’am” in their taunting phone calls. And that’s on purpose. Tahir does terrible things because his mother raised him to believe he was special, all of society told him he was special. He’s smart and well-educated and handsome, he is the ideal Indian boy. And because of that, he should have all good things and the world is there to serve him. At least, that’s what he thinks. He is a spoiled brat, and a dangerous spoiled brat because he never learned to think about anyone’s needs but his own. And Rani is the stern mother, the one who can see through him. Because that’s who does see through those boys, isn’t it? The older women who look at them and see a child, a child that needs correction. And every time he acts out, it makes her be a stronger disciplinarian. A mother doesn’t have the luxury of just walking away, or bribing him into temporary good behavior, or ignoring the problem. A mother has to address it head on, every time.

Speaking of addressing the problem head on, this film does not sugarcoat the misogyny in Indian society and the terrible terrible things that result from it. It’s not just that our villain sees nothing wrong in his behavior, it’s that no one sees anything wrong. Human trafficking of young girls just is not that big of a deal, the police won’t put resources on it, society won’t object to it. There’s a reason we see two protests, one over Valentine’s Day celebrations and one over a rumor of a doctor molesting a “respectable” young girl. This is what the people care about, this is why they protest. The human trafficking and forced prostitution we all know is happening all over the country, that is not something we talk about.

This film talks about it. And offers hope. The girls who are taken in this movie go through terrible terrible things. And they survive and are rescued. Those two things don’t usually go together in Indian film, either our victims are somehow never raped, never tortured, saved just at the last minute. Or they are tragically killed post-rape. Because after all, what kind of life can they have after that? Only, in this movie, it doesn’t ask “what kind of life can you have” it simply asks “do you want to live”. And yes, they do want to live. Despite everything, they are alive, and that is what matters.

In Umrao Jaan, she is a victim of human trafficking. And in the end, she is reunited with her family. Only to be told “we would rather you had died”. This is why India is the worldwide hub for human trafficking. Because all of society looks the other way, pretends it doesn’t happen, would rather think of these girls as already dead and gone. This movie shows a different way.

I should say, all of “good” society. One of the best parts about this film is how it shows the lower level cops, and even criminals, offering to help Rani just because they care, because they are disgusted by what is happening. At heart, humanity still cares about these children. It’s only when it becomes a statistic and an abstract, only when you reach high enough to start thinking about rules over emotions, that’s when you stop caring and would rather pretend it isn’t happening.

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One thing that is interesting about this movie is that it wasn’t actually that hard for Rani to find and defeat Tahir. It wasn’t just hubris that made her so confident, she accurately considered that what she wanted was possible. The only reason it hadn’t happened before was that no one cared enough to make it happen because his crimes “harmed no one”, it was “just” prostitution and drugs.

Rani is a cop in Bombay. She lives with her husband and niece. She also has a foster niece, a street girl she helped and brought to a good children’s home and now regularly meets with and visits. The street girl is kidnapped from the children’s home and Rani quickly tracks down the fake NGO that helped facilitate it. Through that lead, she is broguht to a man who runs human trafficking in Bombay. She starts asking around about him and a local criminal she has in lock up volunteers all the information she needs because he cares about the girls who are being taken. She starts surveillance of the operation and that is when Tahir calls her, angry because for the first time the police are seriously looking for him. She refuses to back down and promises she will find him. He fights back by planting a fake report against her husband, and cutting off and sending her the finger of her adopted niece. Rani is now more determined then ever and follows the trail to Delhi. In Delhi, she finds a couple of Nigerians who are willing to set up a fake drug deal in order to draw out Tahir’s second in command (again, just because they care about the girls). She just misses capturing Tahir and the second in command kills himself. But Rani finds a tailor’s mark in his clothes which leads her to the girlfriend that bought him the clothes. And that girlfriend turns out to be Tahir’s mother. She drugs Rani, Tahir ties her up and taunts her and then locks her in a hotel room and sends up a government minister to rape her. At which point Rani reveals her hidden weapon and frees herself, takes the minister captive, and then frees all the girls and suggest that they kick Tahir to death as the police arrive. She reveals that she didn’t walk into the meeting with Tahir’s mother unaware, it was all a trap, she had help from a local cop (again, just because he cares about this case). Tahir is killed, the girls are free, the other members of the gang are arrested.

All Rani had to do was pull on a few strands that were there for anyone to find and the whole case unraveled. Ask around, everyone knows who runs human trafficking in Bombay. Follow him, find his boss. Follow that boss, find his boss. Do some surveillance, set up a sting, DONE. Rani never even broke a sweat the whole time. The point isn’t that she is a hero because she managed to do all of this, it’s that she cared. She wasn’t scared off either when Tahir threatened her or when her boss warned her not to get into this messy case. She just kept going and had faith it would work out.

I love this as a message, that human trafficking is as easy to solve as simply caring about the problem. But it causes some issues in terms of film structure. The central narrative is really very straightforward. Clue-clue-clue-SOLVED. No big emotional build, no super surprising twists and turns, just straight. To make up for that, the film keeps throwing in massive scary dark scenes reminding us just why what Rani is doing matters. It’s important for the message to see how Tahir treats these girls, not with anger or hatred but pure disinterest. So far as he is concerned, all woman are commodities. He will cry over the death of his male mentor, but will treat killing a young girl as simply a chore to be done. The idea of “rape” doesn’t seem to occur to him as a bad thing, it’s simply a necessary part of business and the girls fetch a higher price their first time. We need to see some of that to understand how total and insidious his misogyny is. But by the 3rd or 4th dark scene of young girls in terrible conditions, it is just a bit exhausting. And only there to keep our interest up for the other scenes.

And that brings me to the sequel! This film was so story focused, we barely got information on Rani’s lead character. She is a top cop with a loyal team. Her husband is a doctor who runs a clinic and seems to be a nice man and the primary caregiver for her niece. It’s important that she is raising a child, giving her a reason to know and care about these other girls, but also important (I think) that it is her niece. We can picture that this very career focused character would not necessarily choose to be a parent, to take the time off for pregnancy. We can also picture that perhaps the unknown tragedy that killed both her niece’s parents is what inspired her to be a police officer. But she isn’t a woman who is a mother first and a police officer second or vice versa, she is both. And I want to know more about this woman! How did her sister and her husband die? How did she meet and marry her husband? How long has she been raising her niece? How long has she been a top cop? What is her relationship like with her boss that she is so fearless towards him? What would she be like if she really had to struggle to solve a case, or had sympathy for the criminal she was chasing, or any of that? There is so much room for a sequel, one that is less about human trafficking and more about this particular character, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

(also, I hope that Rani either allows a stunt double to do her fight scenes, or has gotten better at fighting, or they just cut that. Because the Krav Maga ending fight was just embarrassing)