Gehraiyaan, that saw an OTT Release on Amazon Prime Video, has been getting an interesting response on Twitter. There are movie lovers who absolutely loved the film, and there are some who feel that Gehraiyaan lacked the depth to achieve what it aimed for. However, most are of the same consensus that Shakun Batra's third movie is fascinating when it wants to be and houses Deepika Padukone's career-best performance. She plays Alisha, a fitness instructor based out of Mumbai and in a committed relationship with her boyfriend of 6 years, and yet has a forbidden affair with Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi), the suave boyfriend of her rich NRI cousin Tia (Ananya Panday). Gehraiyaan Movie Review: Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ananya Panday’s Fantastic Performances Strengthen Shakun Batra’s Relationship Drama.
Gehraiyaan also stars Naseeruddin Shah as Alisha's estranged, widower father, Rajat Kapoor as Jitesh, Zain's opportunistic business partner and 83's Dhairya Karwa as Karan, Alisha's boyfriend who aspires to be an author. While Gehraiyaan begins off as an intimate take on forbidden relationships, it transforms itself into a psychological thriller in the second half sharing plot similarity with Woody Allen's 2005 film Match Point. The third act takes a different route, and aligns well with Alisha's arc.
Before we dissect what happens in the climax, here's us putting that warning for you - MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. Please do not read ahead, if you haven't seen the movie.
The Imperfect Murder
Alisha accidentally kills Zain when she stumbles upon his plan to poison her on his yacht. While Zain's death gets put down as suicide by drowning, with police presuming the reason to be his financial woes, Alisha couldn't do get away scot-free from what happened. There are two people who know she has a hand in Zain's demise - her father, who stumbled Zain walking out of her apartment, and Jitesh, who knew Zain was going to kill her.
Here's where the film differs from Match Point, where the anti-hero Chris, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, gets away with the murder of his lover, played by Scarlett Johansson, and gets to be with his wife. Zain gets his just desserts for his selfish actions, but Alisha's troubles are far from over.
Watch the Trailer of Match Point:
Alisha's Bucket of Woes Overflows
Alisha is quite a tragic character. Her entire life had been ruled by the trauma of her mother's suicide. Her father's estrangement and being in a relationship with a man, who she deems to be irresponsible, and then breaks off with him, only made her more emotionally difficult. She then cheats both on her boyfriend and her cousin by carrying a clandestine affair with Tia's fiance. Well, that doesn't end well for the relationship, as she gets pregnant, her fitness class gets sealed when his company gets under ED scanner, and he tries to kill her when he believes she is going to expose their relationship, before she ends up accidentally killing him.
Watch the Trailer:
But then since Jitesh knows that she was with Zain, he blackmails her into stealing Tia's Alibaug farmhouse papers so that he can sell the property and save his company from losses. Seeing no way, she does the task for him, only to learn that the Alibaug farmhouse was actually in her name. Even more shocking to her was the revelation that Tia's father was her father too, Alisha's mother having a relationship with him, which led to her suicide. Ranveer Singh Kisses Deepika Padukone As He Lauds Her Performance in Gehraiyaan.
If you look closely, the clues were always there about this 'shocking' revelation. Alisha's father once asks her if her mother told her he was the reason for her suicide, and her answer makes us feel that she is assuming he is the reason. We also know that her father had broken the business partnership with Tia's father, who is his brother, for reasons undisclosed to start a cheese farm in Nashik, and he never kept any contact with his brother's family when they migrated to US. Tia's mother keeps telling her to keep tabs on her fiance, a suggestion that she agrees to first. Tia also tells her mother how the way they got the Alibaug beach house was not right. The puzzle pieces were already laid out, it was for us to figure out before Alisha does.
Alisha Nearly Becomes Her Mother
Alisha tries to die by suicide, but her father's timely intervention stops her from doing so. A heartfelt conversation with him makes her realise that she was going the same path as her mother - having a infidelious relationship while being committed to someone else and ending up keeping everyone unhappy. And she was about to do what her mother had done - ending her life. It is at that moment, that Alisha realises that the closure she has been seeking her entire life was mending bridges with her father. It is like the wave hitting the beach and cleaning the debris on it when it come to Alisha at this point.
Two years later, Tia also tries to repair their relationship at Karan's engagement party but Alisha's past sins refuse to die down.
The Wave Returneth
The sea has this habit of bringing back stuff from its depths when you least expect it to, like carcasses of dead whales. In case of Alisha, that happens at the aforementioned party, when an old incident comes back to haunt her that could link her to Zain's demise. At the engagement party, Karan introduces Tia and her to his fiancee's grandmother, who was one of the older couple Zain and Alisha rescued in his yacht while they were having one of their amorous meetings. The elderly woman still remember Alisha including her name, something that happens in front of Tia. As the moment of being entrapped dawns upon Alisha, the film cuts to the credits. Gehraiyaan Song Beqaaboo: Deepika Padukone and Siddhant Chaturvedi’s Romance Gets Steamier (Watch Video).
Of course, it is easy to guess what might happen from here. Unless some stroke of luck strikes Alisha, the elderly woman is bound to tell Tia how they met Alisha. Zain and his rich yacht will come up. Tia would definitely realise that as she once suspected, Zain did have an affair and that was with her own cousin. She might not be able to get it linked to his demise unless Alisha confesses the whole truth, but Tia would find herself in the same place as her mother and is most probably never forgive Alisha for this. Moreover, it would be interesting to think how Alisha would deal with the implications, as she has just found closure about her mother. It is like a wave after hitting the beach and doing some damage, returning with the next tide.
The One Happy Ending
With the dark revelations and an ambiguous ending, let's not forget that there is also a happy ending embedded in the finale. Karan, who was the least developed lead character, may not have gotten back with Alisha, but he found a new love in his work colleague, who at least seems happy about their engagement. He is still friends with Tia and Alisha, and is in a happy space, despite not making money out of his first book (what's with Shakun Batra and struggling authors?).
Interestingly, he has now become what Alisha might have wanted him to be when they were together, taking up a job and earning bucks enough to not rely on his well-to-do parents. There is a high probability that he will learn about Alisha's infidelity, courtesy his fiancee's grandmother. But we hope that Karan being such a nice guy would have in it to let go off her fallacy.
So what are your thoughts about Gehraiyaan? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 11, 2022 07:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).