A Thursday Ending Explained: Decoding the Suspenseful Climax of Yami Gautam Dhar’s Disney+ Hotstar Thriller (SPOILER ALERT)

Behzada Khambata's A Thursday is a thriller made on the lines of Neeraj Pandey's A Wednesday. Starring Yami Gautam Dhar in the lead, it is about a playschool teacher Naina who takes her 15 kids as hostages and calls up police with demands that feel weird at first, but of course, makes sense ahead. The movie also stars Atul Kulkarni and Neha Dhupia as cops involved in the negotiation process, Karanvir Sharma plays Naina's hapless fiance and Dimple Kapadia as the Prime Minister of India. A Thursday is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. A Thursday Movie Review: Yami Gautam Leads the Charge in This Surprisingly Pacy Thriller.

Since A Thursday works as a spiritual successor of A Wednesday and since the lead is played by the likeable Yami, it is not hard to guess that despite the criminal methods of taking unassuming tots as her hostage, and then tying up her maid and the driver of one of kids when they stumble upon her plan, Naina's agenda may not be as nefarious as they look like.

Before we go ahead and decode the climax of the Hotstar thriller, here's the perfunctory warning - MAJOR SPOILERS Ahead.

Naina's Trauma

From the brief flashbacks and between Javed Khan's investigation, we learn that Naina had been raped as a teenager in her school bus. Despite the years gone by, the pain of the horrifying incident hasn't let go off her. Especially living with the fact that she couldn't get justice for what happened to her. The police wasn't too interested in cracking the case, despite her mentioning the culprits, with a young but uninterested Javed Khan (Atul Kulkarni) leading the investigation then. She lost her father in between, and Naina herself was suffering from depression from the trauma before she could come out of it after years of treatment.

Though she was happy with her present life with a new job and her fiance, the scars still remain as she tells the PM that even hugging her boyfriend makes her feel dirty. Those scars are once again deepened when the horror of her past revisits her innocuously, and she lapsed into using antidepressants. In the next three weeks, she decides to seek justice for herself, creating a convincing hostage drama to get the attention for her mission and her agenda, while getting her rapists punished for what they did. She didn't deliberately harm any of the kids.

Watch the Trailer:

PS: If someone is 'killed' offscreen and the body is never shown, don't believe it 99% of the time!

The Three Demands

During the whole hostage drama, Naina had made three demands from the cops. One, transfer Rs 5 crore to her account. Second, find two people for her. And third, get her to talk to the PM and then ask the PM to come and meet her.

In the finale, we realise why she meted out those demands. Naina's mission was not just to get justice for herself, but also for other survivors like her, and maybe even reduce such crimes in future. Let's get to each of her demand. The Rs 5 crore was for the NGO's taking care of rape survivors, which she got the PM to transfer the money.

Second was getting the perpetrators of the heinous crime meted out to her in front of the law. She gets the police to get hold of the cleaner of that bus, who aided the actual rapist to sexually assault her. The police couldn't get hold of the main culprit by then, because he was already in the clutches of Naina. He was the new driver of one of her playschool kids, whose birthday she was celebrating that day. His reappearance three weeks ago, though he didn't recognise her, triggered the traumatic memories for Naina again, making her take a four-week leave of absence to cope with her fragile mental state. A Thursday: Neha Dhupia Shares About Her Inspiration Behind Playing the Role of a Pregnant Police Officer.

Naina returns a week early so that she can finally seek justice for herself. She uses the girl's birthday to make the driver to bring cake to the playschool so that she can make him a hostage. Unlike the maid who was an accidental intrusion, the driver's capture was planned. Naina wanted him to confess his crimes in front of a repentant Javed and she shoots him down, only when he tried to shoot her using Javed's gun - which had its safety lock on, hence didn't fire. I don't believe Naina intended to kill the driver, if he hadn't tried to shoot her first and thereby confirming his involvement in the sexual assault. For the hostage drama and the killing, Naina goes to prison, but she is no longer seen a villain by the public and media.

The Third Demand and Why It Makes Not Much Sense

The reason why Naina wanted to talk to PM is to make her push for the Capital Punishment for rapists. She is of the firm belief that the punishment of death can bring down rapes in the country. I can understand why she thinks that way, and also why the makers of the film chose to back such a populist sentiment. Don't we all wish that culprits who do such heinous harm to women, no matter what their age, deserve to die?

Whether capital punishment deserves to be part of a democracy or not is a question for another discussion. But with what A Thursday tries to put its opinion across, there is a big flaw in its argument. The movie simply forgets why Naina never got the justice she deserved. It is not because of a lack of capital punishment, but because how the process of justice deliverance is skewered. The cops investigating Naina's sexual assault never bothered to close the case, or catch the culprits, despite the first-hand statement from the survivor. The red-tapism and the lethargy of the police department in handling such cases - we still hear of instances where cops refuse to file even an FIR for rape - not to mention, getting the courts to come to a judgement which takes years. It is the process that kills the justice, than the judgement. There is also another argument that if capital punishment is the only form of sentence given in the case of rapes, we cannot discount the fact that the victims would be in further moral peril after the assault, to avoid getting caught by law. Despite the presence of capital punishment in many countries, the threat of death hasn't served as a deterrent for crime prevention.

Let's not forget both of Naina's assailants belong to the lower strata of the society. What if they belonged to the upper strata? Impartiality is not exactly a strength when it comes our country's justice dispensation. What's more if the assailants belonged to powerful families, can we ignore the fact that Naina could be vilified further for what she did by the manipulative media and a flawed judicial system? Moreover, when we have elected reps with criminal charges, include rapes, do you believe such a bill would be passed anonymously in a male-privileged system?

A Thursday had its heart and emotions in the right place, but the ending is merely a societal fantasy that will never work until the law and order gets their act right in the first place. So what do you think about A Thursday? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 18, 2022 08:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).