''Madaari '' () is a 2016

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

social thriller A social thriller is a film genre using elements of suspense and horror to augment instances of apparent oppression in society. The genre gained attention in 2017 with the release of Jordan Peele's ''Get Out'', a film highlighting occurrences ...

film directed by Nishikant Kamat. It is produced by

Shailesh R Singh Shailesh R Singh is an Indian film producer known for his works exclusively in Hindi cinema. In his 12-year career span, he has produced both commercially & critically acclaimed films. Career Shailesh R Singh has produced films like ''Tanu We ...

, Madan Paliwal, Sutapa Sikdar, and Shailja Kejriwal and co-produced by Nishant Pitti from Easemytrip. The film stars

Irrfan Khan Irrfan Khan () (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 196729 April 2020), also known simply as Irrfan, was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in In ...

Vishesh Bansal Vishesh Bansal (born 3 October 2004) is an Indian actor. He was brought up in Mumbai, India. He is known for portraying Harshal Gupta in ''Yeh Meri Family''. Career Bansal has acted in several shows, including the 2011 Triangle Film Company' ...

Jimmy Shergill Jimmy Sheirgill (born Jasjit Singh Gill; 3 December 1970), also credited as Jimmy Shergill, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi and Punjabi films. Sheirgill began his film career with the 1996 thriller ''Maachis''. His bre ...

Tushar Dalvi Tushar Dalvi is an Indian film and television actor. He has acted in Marathi and Hindi films. His first film role was in ''Jivalaga''. He has won many awards and was nominated on several occasions. He has also done roles in various Hindi televis ...

and

Nitesh Pandey Nitesh Pandey (born 17 January 1973) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films and TV serials. He is better known for his role of Shah Rukh Khan's assistant in ''Om Shanti Om'' (2007). Career Pandey began doing theatre in 1990. In 1995, he g ...

and was released on 22 July 2016. This was Nishikant Kamat's last film as director before his death on 17 August 2020. Upon release, it received positive reviews and was a sleeper hit at the box office, but in later years it became a

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

Plot

A 10-year-old child, Rohan, is kidnapped from his hostel. Rohan is the only son of the

Home Minister The Minister of Home Affairs (or simply, the Home Minister, short-form HM) is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the Home Minist ...

. The army and the CBI storm into action. CBI officer Nachiket Verma heads the case and gets restrain 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 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 co-operate 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 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. The news becomes a hot item in the media. Towards the end, Nirmal travels back to his house in Mumbai with Rohan, and calls a TV news channel from there and demands all those who were involved in the bridge collapse, including the Home Minister, come to his house and also the news anchor to broadcast it to the people, threatening to kill Rohan and himself if they don't. He makes the bridge contractor, the Home Minister, whose name appears in the initial scenes of the movie as Gilani (stated in a newspaper headline), and the ruling party's money man , confess their corrupt activities on a live broadcast on TV. Rohan indicates he understands why Nirmal did what he did and Rohan and Nirmal hug before Rohan leaves with his father. Nirmal surrenders to the police and is later seen immersing the articles his son was wearing (and the remains of his son in a schoolbag) when he died, in sea while being under the custody of the police.

Cast

as Nirmal Kumar *

as Rohan Goswami *

Jimmy Sheirgill Jimmy Sheirgill (born Jasjit Singh Gill; 3 December 1970), also credited as Jimmy Shergill, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi and Punjabi films. Sheirgill began his film career with the 1996 thriller ''Maachis''. His bre ...

as Nachiket Verma *

as Prashant Goswami a.k.a. "Gilani" *

Uday Tikekar Uday Tikekar (born 4 December 1960) is an Indian film and television actor. He began his career in Marathi theatre, also putting up performances in Hindi theatre. He is married to classical singer Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar, who is a 2-time Nation ...

as Pratap Nimbalkar *

as Sanjay Jagtap * Rajeev Gupta as Mr. Bansal * Sadhil Kapoor as Cheeku *

Ayesha Raza Mishra Ayesha Raza Mishra (born 26 September 1977) is an Indian actress. Career Ayesha Raza Mishra began her career working in theatre, advertisements, and television shows. She went on to portray motherly roles in several films including Madaari, ...

as Jaya Goswami, Rohan's mother and Prashant's wife

Production

Filming

The film was shot in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Music

The first song "Dama Dama Dam" from ''Madaari'' was released on 10 June 2016. Both Songs Written by

Irshad Kamil Irshad Kamil (born 5 September 1971) is an Indian poet and lyricist. His songs appear in Bollywood films including ''Jab We Met'', '' Chameli'', '' Love Aaj Kal'', ''Rockstar'', ''Aashiqui 2, Raanjhanaa, Highway, Tamasha,'' and ''Jab Harry Met ...

Release

Marketing

The first look poster of the film was unveiled through

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and later the teaser of the film was revealed on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

on 10 May 2016. The trailer was released by T-Series on 11 May 2016 on YouTube.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

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

References

External links

* {{Nishikant Kamat 2016 films Films about corruption in India Indian films based on actual events Indian thriller films 2010s Hindi-language films Films set in Delhi Films directed by Nishikant Kamat Films set in Dehradun Films set in Shimla Films set in Mumbai Films set in Rajasthan Films scored by Vishal Bhardwaj Films about child abduction in India Films with screenplays by Ritesh Shah 2016 thriller films Thriller films based on actual events Hindi-language thriller films