Time to show angry young women on screen: 'Mardaani 2' director Gopu Puthran

Gopi Puthran, who made his directorial debut with Mardaani 2, says the film's aim is to show a mirror to the society about its treatment of women through an "angry young woman" narrator. The universe of Mardaani is bold in terms of its narrative as it deals with topics such as human trafficking, child prositution to rape.

"We are talking about stories of women, the issues that women face and deep inside about their life in the thriller format. These are the core values of 'Mardaani'," Puthran told PTI in an interview here. "In the 70s, we had Amitabh Bachchan doing the angry young man, it is time for an angry young woman, who speaks about her issues. There is an audience, which is ready to take the stories of today's angry young women. The time is right for this universe to evolve. We need to incorporate more relevant topics, subjects and themes," he added.

Puthran said there are plans to make the third part in the "Mardaani" franchise but the team has not started work on it yet. "Let's see what could be another subject that will resonate with women." From being an assistant director and a writer on "Mardaani" (2014), Puthran took on the role of a director for the sequel. The first time director said it was producer Aditya Chopra, who suggested he should direct the sequel.

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"When I started work on it ('Mardaani 2'), we had a story ready at a brief level. I was ready to direct and Adi (Aditya Chopra) thought right project needs to come for me to direct it, it was his suggestion that I should take up 'Mardaani 2' as I knew the universe of 'Mardaani'. Also, I love thrillers as a person."

For Mardaani 2, Puthran said he took about nine months to research and write the script. He said there were a couple of cases in 2017, which made him question things, about repeat offenders and formed the story of Mardaani 2. "We had to be perfect with our research. I met a lot of senior IPS officers, observed them so that Rani Mukherji's character becomes better. I had the opportunity to interact with a senior officer, who had worked on rape cases. Getting those insights on rape cases from close quarters was very helpful."

In the film, actor Vishal played the role of Sunny Prasad Yadav, a 21-year-old rapist-murderer. The director said for him it was essential to understand the psyche of rapists, especially those who are repeat offenders.

"I was intrigued by these perpetrators. A repeat offender is remorseless, he justifies his actions in some way in his head and I was very curious to know the justification. "Thus started my journey in exploring such people, their journey, their psyche that took me to IPS officers. When I read the case files, I realised their justification is watertight, they think they are doing no wrong. That is how Sunny was formed, in his head he is doing nothing wrong."

Puthran said solutions are always going to be complex and that the system needs to figure out how justice is fast-tracked in such cases. "Besides this, people need to be aware of the kind of children they are raising. Economically, we need to lessen the disparity of income. There are economic and cultural facets to it. There is a patriarchy. It is not just that one action you take and everything will get eradicated." 

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