Vidya Balan and director Anu Menon reunite after the biopic Shakuntala Devi, this time for an Agatha Christie-influenced whodunnit, Neeyat. The murder mystery is about a tycoon who is found dead near his isolated manor and the few suspects involved in his apparent murder. Neeyat also stars Ram Kapoor, Neeraj Kabi, Rahul Bose, Niki Aneja Walia, Shahana Goswami, Dipannita Sharma, Shashank Arora, Prajakta Koli, Amrita Puri, Danesh Razvi among others. Neeyat Movie Review: Vidya Balan's Whodunnit Underwhelms with Clumsy Mystery and A Discerning Lack of Ingenuity.

Ram Kapoor plays tycoon, AK, who apparently dies by suicide after jumping from a cliff near his Scottish mansion on his birthday night, citing conscience crisis for the mess he caused back in India. He had ran off from India after allegations of financial impropriety was levelled against him, leading to eight suicides. On that day, he invited his close friends, girlfriend and family members for a gettogether, but drops a bomb on them saying he is going to surrender himself to Indian authorities. And to arrest him has arrived Mira Rao, a CBI officer from India, played by Vidya Balan, who is both amused and repulsed by the greedy and privileged people in the mansion.

Mira could not arrest AK since she can only do so in the presence of Scotland Yard officers, who are stuck in the storm. Later in the night, AK storms out after a fight with his son Ryan, and is later found dead down the cliffs, while Mira is rendered unconscious by someone unseen. While AK's favourite psychic Zara claims that she saw AK jump off the cliff, Mira insists that he is murdered. She also finds out that a red mysterious briefcase that AK was trying to hide is now missing. Mira also figures out that every person there has a motive to kill AK.

So who killed AK? Who attacked Mira? Where did the briefcase go? Is Mira hiding more than she is telling others? The below SPOILER-ish section decodes all the mysteries though read ahead with caution.

The Red Herrings

By the time we reach the finale and for Mira Rao to give the answers, there are already three deaths and one missing (though that person is also later discovered to be dead). AK is gone. Tanveer, the event manager who is actually a sting journalist and the ex of Ryan's girlfriend Gigi (also secretly a journalist), is found dead in the forest while trying to escape with AK's briefcase. Sanjay Suri, AK's close friend, who had killed Tanveer actually to get the briefcase back since he believed it had the documents for his residence, is also stabbed to death. But not before, he learns that his son is actually a result of a one-night stand between his wife and Jimmy, AK's gay brother-in-law. BTW, Kay, AK's obsessed PA, is missing, and later we find out that she had killed Sanjay.

Mira brings rest of the suspects together in a room, and reveals how each had a motive to kill AK, since his surrender means they would be out of their inheritance or money, and how some of them unsuccessfully even tried to kill AK. So who succeeded?

The Real Baddie

Well, it turns out that AK wasn't actually dead, but was faking his death to escape the authorities and his greedy relatives with the help of Zara, who is actually his elder sister. The relation was overheard in a conversation between AK and Zara by Mira when she fainted due to her low BP earlier in the film, though for some reason, she kept this to herself. AK had a secret tunnel that connects the top of the cliff to the bottom, where he lay dead so that others think so.

Watch the Trailer of Neeyat:

Kay, who was originally not in AK's confidence about his escape plan, discovers the hatch to the tunnel and realises that he was not dead. After AK persuades her easily to help him, she had lied to others that AK's body got washed away by the waves. The briefcase contained the necessary documents and money trails for AK to escape to another country where India doesn't have an extradition deal and live an incognito life there.

The thing is it didn't need a Mira for us to deduce AK wasn't dead, especially when Kay claimed the body was washed away and Zara insisting that she saw him jump off the cliff, clear signs that there was something dodgy about the whole demise. Remember the golden rule in these films - whenever something is told to have happened offscreen, there is huge chance that it may not have happened at all. Also, the person who benefits most from AK's 'death' is AK himself, and knowing how shrewd, cunning and manipulative this person is, it was hard to believe he could die so easily. SatyaPrem Ki Katha Ending Explained: Does Kartik Aaryan-Kiara Advani's Love Story Have a Happy Ending?

The Villains Meet Their Doom

Although AK and Zara had nearly perfectly executed their master escape plan, they didn't expect Mira to play spoilsport. Zara, after gassing the rest of the people to unconsciousness and leaving Kay for dead after taking the bag from her, tries to escape but is shot down by Mira. Even AK meets his makers when trying to escape from Mira through a fog, he slips and falls down the very same cliff he pretended to die from earlier.

The Final Twist

If we thought AK faking his own death (and later actually meeting the same fate) was the last twist, we were wrong. It turns out there was a reason why Mira didn't actually command her authority as a CBI officer much on the crime scene when we expected her to. And we shouldn't have ignored that red flag when Mira dropped at AK's house alone despite the raging storm outside, even though this was her first visit outside her country. Gumraah Ending Explained: Decoding the 'Killer' Reveal in the Climax of Aditya Roy Kapur and Mrunal Thakur's Mystery-Thriller.

You see, this woman wasn't Mira Rao, who was an actual CBI officer, played by Shefali Shah. The truth bomb was dropped on the rest of the mansion's occupants when the real Mira Rao introduces herself to them, and we are then shown who the imposter was.

So the other 'Mira Rao' was the lesbian lover of the eighth suicide victim of AK's financial scandal. A brilliant hacker, she has been planning and plotting AK's downfall for days, and she even figured out his supposed meetup with Mira Rao. How she manages all that and even gets to AK's very isolated Scottish mansion without getting noticed is left up to us to fill the gaps. Anyway, she not only gets AK killed (accidentally at that), Mira also gets all the information that she needs, including the numbers to open AK's briefcase, which she anonymously passes on to CBI, so that the money could be returned to the people of India.

Interestingly, this twist is similar to a twist in another of Vidya Balan's mystery-thriller films, the far superior Kahaani. In both the films, Vidya's character is not who she is claiming to be, and she dons the alter ego to take down the villain who harmed her loved one.

The Sequel Tease

Neeyat has a mid-credit scene that is set six months after the events of the main plot. Vidya Balan's character is sitting on a bench when she is approached by the real Mira Rao, who has finally tracked her down. However, instead of arresting her, Mira rather indirectly gives her imposter an invitation to join the CBI. She, however, tells Vidya Balan's character that she is good, but not good enough. To which Vidya Balan's character says, not yet!

This scene teases a sequel where Vidya Balan's character could solve a new case, perhaps with the real Mira Rao, now as part of CBI. However, the film's poor response with the critics and the poor box office response makes it very difficult for the duo to return for another adventure. What say?

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 09, 2023 09:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).