Madaari

About the film

Madaari (transl. Puppeteer) is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language drama thriller film directed by Nishikant Kamat, in his final film as a director before his death in 2020. The film stars Irrfan Khan, Vishesh Bansal, Jimmy Shergill, Tushar Dalvi and Nitesh Pandey. It was released on 22 July 2016 and received positive reviews from critics, later gaining cult status. The film's plot is based on a real-life incident, the collapse of an under construction Metro bridge in Andheri, Mumbai, which occurred on 4 September 2012.

Plot

A 10-year-old child, Rohan, is kidnapped from his hostel. Rohan is the only son of the Home Minister. The Paramilitary and the CBI storm into action. CBI officer Nachiket Verma heads the case and gets restraining orders from all the other security agencies to make sure that the kidnappers don't panic and kill Rohan. Initially, the case is thought of mistaken identity wherein the kidnapper might have tried to kidnap the friend of Rohan, Cheeku who was also drugged while kidnapping.

For a long time, there is silence from the kidnapper and everyone is left guessing as to who it might be, and at the same time, the investigation is kept extremely secret, so as to keep the kidnapper(s) from killing Rohan. Behind the scenes, the security agencies try to find the location of the kidnapper without raising any kind of suspicion. Rohan is actually kidnapped by Nirmal after being drugged by him. Rohan shows his anger towards Nirmal for kidnapping him. Nirmal shows Rohan a pre-recorded video of his friend Cheeku who is in a drugged state struggling with fear. Nirmal tells Rohan that Cheeku will be killed if he refuses to cooperate with him. Nirmal keeps traveling via public transport to evade his location.

One day, Nirmal calls Cheeku's father to convey a message to the Home Minister, Prashant Goswami, that Rohan was abducted on purpose. His demand is that he wants his son, who was lost in an act of negligence by the government, to be found. It is then revealed that Nirmal had a happy family with his son, Apu (short for Apurva) after his wife left them. Apu died when a bridge collapsed on him on his way to school. Moved and depressed by his loss, Nirmal decided to seek revenge from the politicians and others responsible for the death of his son.

Production

The film was shot in New Delhi, Rajasthan, Dehradun, Shimla and Mumbai.

Music

The first song "Dama Dama Dam" from Madaari was released on 10 June 2016. Both songs were written by Irshad Kamil.

Marketing

The first look poster of the film was unveiled through Twitter by Irrfan Khan and later the teaser of the film was revealed on YouTube on 10 May 2016. The trailer was released by T-Series on 11 May 2016 on YouTube.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on 9 reviews, and an average rating of 7.6/10.

Key details