It’s a particularly busy day in Joypurra town in Bengal. Bani (Taapsee Pannu) and her husband Gokul (Ishwak Singh) lose their daughter Mishty to sex traffickers. Bani suffers temporary vision loss while chasing the abductors. On this very day, police officer Kabir (Jatin Sarna) arrives in Joypurra, intent on dismantling the Blackhole trafficking gang.Enraged by the local police’s apathy and undeterred by her condition, Bani decides to rescue Mishty all by herself. Her mother Jhunu (Mita Vashisht) happens to be around, concealing her ninja skills by selling jhalmuri. Blackhole’s leader Dada (Prashant Narayanan) keeps talking about a Plan Zero, which involves holding scores of abducted girls within Joypurra and waiting for the opportune moment to smuggle them out.Kabir’s big idea to combat Dada’s ploy is to cordon off Joypurra. Rather than meeting Bani and Gokul, or listening closely to information about Joypurra’s geography that would make his life easier, or simply interrogating openly suspicious characters, Kabir spends weeks hanging around looking purposeful – and lost.After a bustling beginning, Gandhari lapses into a kind of nervous languidity. Written and produced by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Devashish Makhija, the Netflix release tries to draw juice from low-hanging fruit – child sex trafficking is one of the most unconscionable crimes – but comes up empty.Ishwak Singh in Gandhari (2026). Courtesy Kathha Pictures/Netflix.Named after the Kaurava queen from the Mahabharata who blindfolded herself in solidarity with her sightless husband Dhritarashtra, Gandhari itself is blinkered to its contrived plotting and lack of interest in mounting a proper investigation. One of the film’s big ideas – spelt out, of course – is that evil is lurking in plain sight, and people wear masks.There’s a nonsensical scene of a character driving around in a van that has large windows and contains prominent bags of what could either be record-sized jackfruit or young girls. Kabir’s inability to enforce a dragnet places him only a few notches above the venally lazy local cops.Not to be outdone by Bani, Gokul too is hunting for his daughter in his own way. Strangely, Bani doesn’t trust Kabir enough to share her findings. Jatin Sarna, refreshingly cast against type as Kabir, is reduced to barking orders that have zero bite.Devashish Makhija’s previous films include vigilante thrillers that offer simplistic and implausible solutions to deep-seated social injustice. In Gandhari, Makhija’s main contribution is to try and execute a shoddy screenplay and lob various twists with minimum damage.The 116-minute movie includes roles for Chhaya Kadam, Swastika Mukherjee and Chandan Roy. Taapsee Pannu turns on the waterworks when she isn’t tapping into her inner warrior, but to little avail. Prashant Narayanan’s arch-villain appears to be a continuation of his psychopath from Murder 2, but without the impact.