India, Jan. 30 -- If comedies and spy thrillers can spin entire universes, why should a woman in uniform be a one film idea? There is no rule that grit or myth making belongs only to men with guns and muscles. Mardaani 3, the third chapter in the franchise, arrives with that quiet confidence, fronted once again by Rani Mukerji, who has turned Shivani Shivaji Roy into less of a character and more of a moral force.

Directed by Abhiraj Minawala, the third outing places Shivani firmly on the streets of Delhi, investigating the disappearance of two young girls, one of them a bureaucrat's daughter. What begins as a routine missing persons case soon opens up into something far uglier. As Shivani digs deeper, she uncovers an organised human traf...