Synopsis Collection: Dhund.


“Yes Meeta, come around at 9:30 pm with your niece to my place. I would certainly like to put her to test before I employ her as my daughter’s caretaker.” Said a workaholic Subhagi(VB) and a mother of one-year-old Pia whom she took from the crèche and went home.
Subhagi is a divorced workaholic whose job does not permit her to spend a lot of her time with her one-year-old daughter Pia. She is desperate to find a caretaker of Pia, believing that at least Pia shall be home with a nanny while she is at work.
Her doorbell rings and it is Meeta, the caretaker of the neighbouring house who has got her niece, Reshma(AB) as a nanny for Subhagi’s daughter Pia. Seeing Pia cry, Subhagi ensues Reshma with the task of stopping Pia’s cry which she is able to stop within seconds. This convinces Subhagi that she can trust Reshma with Pia and thus takes her documents and employs her in haste.
Meanwhile, Subhagi is also fighting the custody case for Pia with her ex-husband Kanishk who is a doctor by profession. In honest terms, Kanishk is not interested in keeping Pia but has to give in to the demands of his mother, Bina(SS) who desperately wants her granddaughter with her and so out of options, Kanishk is facing Subhagi for the custody case.
A few days later, Subhagi’s lawyer calls her and reprimands her for not being present in the court in spite of the notice being delivered to her house and because of this reason, the court rules the judgement in favour of Kanishk and asks Subhagi to hand over the custody of Pia almost immediately to Kanishk’s family. Subhagi is shattered and is furious that Reshma did not handover the notice. She immediately dials Reshma but the phone is out of reach. Subhagi believes that Reshma might have taken Pia to the doctor for the regular vaccination and herself waits till she gets home to confront Reshma that evening.
Subhagi reaches home and there is no one there. She tries calling Reshma a couple of times but to no avail. She seemingly begins to get worried and runs around in the neighbourhood calling out their names but receives no reply. She even goes to meet Meeta and it turns out that Meeta is not at home and has gone to the suburbs of the city. Subhagi recalls Meeta telling her that Reshma belongs somewhere to the south suburbs of Mumbai and so Subhagi literally goes and scans the place but has no results. She comes back home dismayed expecting Reshma and Pia to come home soon. She falls asleep and is woken up by the banging of the doors by Bina who is there to take Pia. She manages to convince Bina that Subhagi is missing and drives off looking for her daughter.
She reaches the clinic only to know that Reshma had come there with Pia, a day before yesterday and had taken a list of allergic medicines for Pia; which are prescribed when long trips that are undertaken. Subhagi gets worried and feels helpless. She decides to go to the police station but on the way back she realises that if she went to the police station, the police would believe that she just staged her daughter’s kidnapping to prevent compliance with court’s orders.
Bina and Kanishk now know that Pia is missing and they reprimand Subhagi for hiding her but Subhagi constantly tries to convince them that she did not do any such thing and Bina finally calls the police. Inspector Dev(VK) listens to Subhagi and Kanishk’s side of the story and decides to have a look at any evidence suggesting Subhagi’s justification. He comes to know about Subhagi’s reason of not approaching the police station, her stint at the doctor’s and the caretaker. To be sure of what happened, Dev goes and meets Meeta who makes a shocking revelation that she was paid by Reshma to introduce her as her niece to Subhagi, as well as Meeta, claimed to have noticed Reshma’s extraordinary interest to nanny Pia. 
Subhagi is shattered. She does not believe what has been going for quite some time and is moved to tears. Dev asks for the documents of Reshma.        When she hands them over to Dev, he simply smiles and throws them down claiming that they are all false and her case is at a dead end. Bina continues to allegate that it is all Subhagi’s set up to prevent handing over of Pia but Dev doesn’t agree that Subhagi is guilty.
That evening as she is drawing the curtains, Subhagi sees a beggar roaming about and realises that he may be of some help. He goes to her and tells her that she may find both of them at the main brothel of the suburbs. Subhagi goes there with him only to be knocked unconscious by the brothel owner who keeps her at the brothel and gives the beggar some money and he leaves. When she regains consciousness, she tells the brothel owner the entire story and shows her Reshma’s photo seeing which the owner says that she did have Reshma works for her but used to go missing for 4 hrs daily in the afternoon but didn’t know where. She also gives her Reshma’s old number and asks her to contact Akeel(TRB), the organ thief/girls supplier who got Reshma to that brothel and used to take her out every day. The brothel owner also tells her to go to ‘Zanzibar’ because Akeel was a frequent visitor there.
As Subhagi leaves the brothel, she gets a ransom call if she wanted Pia and Reshma alive. She hurriedly takes out all the money and reaches the place only to be greeted by Pia’s toys. Meanwhile, the police also reach and she tells Dev about all the developments. Dev initially does not believe her but on checking her call records he believes she isn’t lying and this time when Bina claims that Subhagi is plotting, he silences her. Thus, gives confidence to Subhagi that indeed he believes Pia was kidnapped. Later on, further investigation suggests that actually, it was a prank call and that there were no intentions of hurting the Subhagi.
Subhagi reaches Zanzibar and begins to enquire about Akeel but no one talks about him with her. She sits down on a couch and keeps pressing the couch in nervousness. One of the waitresses observes her and tells her that her actions match to those of another woman who recently visited a guy named Rambo. Subhagi further enquires about Rambo and the waitress just tells her that he comes every day around 7 pm and ‘picks’ up girls from the bar and sells them after drugging them. Also, he arranges for donors for an illegal organ transplant. She shows the waitress the picture of Akeel and she tells her that it is Rambo. Listening to this, Subhagi is disheartened and pleads that Pia is safe.
Around 7pm, Subhagi sees Akeel entering but waits for the waitress to signal to approach. She approaches Akeel and begs to know about the location of Reshma to which he says that he has no idea and had come to her a few months ago asking to be a liver donor for earning some money as she was in desperate need so that was why she used to take her every day for 4 hours for medication once she had agreed to sell herself every day.
He also states that she met him and claimed that everything was fine and she would lead a happy life soon. Akeel pities Subhagi and offers her a picture that fell from Reshma’s purse one day during her medication and hands over to Subhagi. Subhagi notices Reshma with a baby in the photo.
Behind the photograph, Subhagi observes a name ‘Maaya Studios’ and decides to trace it. She reaches Meher Studios which is renamed to ‘Maaya Colour Labs’ and as soon as she gets off the car, she hears Pia’s cry for her mom. She runs in the direction of the voice and reaches an abandoned shop where she sees all bloodshed- Reshma dead, Bina Dead, Kanishk dead and Pia crying with her face covered with blood.
           What are the different types of fog? - Met Office                                                                                                         






Subhagi shrieks and wakes up realising it was just a dream and that it is morning and the shop was open. She goes onto see that her phone had missed calls of Dev and Kanishk and she ignores all of them thinking that she has to find Pia all by herself.
Meanwhile, Dev reaches Zanzibar and is waiting for Akeel. The waitress tells them about Subhagi’s appearance and that she met Akeel and left with some photographs. Dev and others are now clueless whom to follow and so decide to trace Subhagi’s phone location.
At the photo studio, the owner tells that he had clicked that photo a few weeks ago and particularly remembers because that lady in the picture(Reshma) was extremely possessive about the baby and didn’t even let the baby interact with him when at the studio and in fact scratched him when he tried to touch the baby. From his records, he gives the address and the phone number to Subhagi and she leaves.
Upon reaching the place given to her by the owner, Subhagi is greeted by an empty old house. She enters the house to see that there is nothing but just a photo of a pregnant Reshma, a man and an old woman. She comes out of the house with the picture only to be greeted by Reshma’s neighbour who details her about the incidents. She narrates that Reshma was pregnant when she shifted in this place with her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law used to constantly nag her for not working and making excuses and a poor and disheartened Reshma used to find solace in her neighbour. Her husband had died leaving her with their only child and a mother-in-law to nag. She could not work because of her condition and her mother in law refused to work. Subhagi then enquires about the money to which she replies “An old lady used to come there every week, meet Reshma’s mother in law, give her a bundle of cash and leave.  That lady was quite rich as she always came in a big car and used to meet Reshma’s mother in law and leave. Whenever she was in the house Reshma was not allowed to enter. A few days after shifting, Reshma went into labour and it was her neighbour and her husband who took her to the hospital and stood by her. Since Reshma gave birth to a girl, her mother in law disowned them and her neighbour welcomed her to stay. But in a day or two, Reshma’s daughter fell seriously ill and they took her to the hospital and gave her some money for hospital expense. But the next day when we went to see her, both Reshma and her daughter were missing.”
Subhagi reaches and realises that the hospital Reshma went to was none other than her husband’s workplace. She straight away rams into her husband’s chamber and accuses him of kidnapping Pia. Her husband dismisses her allegations as false and baseless and calls up Dev. Dev arrives there and listens to both Subhagi and Kanishk’s story and believes that both of them are right. Dev decides to investigate the hospital staff and finds out that Reshma did come with a baby girl as the baby was suffering from Hepatitis and had damaged her liver but within 2 days of her admission Reshma’s daughter was discharged due to her lack of funds.
Subhagi and Dev now are able to connect the dots and realise that Reshma’s stint with Akeel and her time at the brothel was simply because she needed money for her child’s treatment. But Subhagi fails to understand that why would she kidnap Pia. Subhagi suddenly realizes that around the same time Pia was suffering from pneumonia and she had asked Kanishk to get Pia a bed as the hospital was running to full occupancy. Dev realizes and immediately calls in for the records of who was admitted after Reshma’s daughter on the bed and it is found out that it was Pia, who was given the bed. A nurse steps in and tells the trio that after being discharged from the hospital Reshma did return with her daughter who was dead by the time she returned. She goes onto say that Reshma did not weep once beholding the sight of her dead daughter in her hands and quietly left. Dev then asserts that Reshma took note of all the things, earned a little money and presented herself as a nanny to Meeta who introduced her to Subhagi but the question still lingers, “Why Pia?”.
That night Subhagi returns home, goes to Pia’s cradle and wears the blanket around her which she was made by Reshma in the love of Pia and starts sobbing bitterly. A hand wavers over her head and it is that of her mother-in-law who apologises to her for all the trouble caused and promises her that she would never separate Pia and her and instead would ask Kanishk to revoke their divorce. In the flashback, we see that the woman who used to give money to Reshma’s mother in law was none other than Bina who did it because Reshma’s mother in law was a worker at Bina’s house in the early years and had built a rapport with her and also she became Bina’s confidante which Reshma’s mother in law benefitted by blackmailing Bina later on.
The story shifts to the present day where Dev trusting his instincts and believing them calls in Akeel for interrogation. After some rigidity, Akeel reveals that he did Reshma and Pia after Reshma kidnapped her and was absconding. He goes onto tell that he condemned Reshma’s moves who replied, “It’s not wrong to take back your own child and leave.” He then tells her that he had fallen in love with her so he was willing to do anything and that she asked him to get her mother in law killed. He had also made passports for Reshma and the baby to leave on a ferry to Colombo. Rest he did not know about.
Fearing that Reshma would be leaving the country that very day, Subhagi, Dev and Bina race towards the ferry bound to leave and start searching for Reshma. Subhagi spots Reshma near the deck and approaches her. Reshma then threatens that she will jump into the water if they don’t stop. She then says that her daughter was innocent and as a mother she did go to extents to protect her daughter but no one helped her so she was running away from them with ‘her’ daughter and no one had the right to stop her.
From behind Dev calls out to her and tries to reassure that it is not her daughter she is holding. Subhagi breaks down and requests Reshma to hand over her daughter. Reshma stays still for some time and sees the baby’s face and hands her over to Subhagi and snatches the quilt which she says was meant for her daughter but then gifted it to Pia believing that Pia could survive only after her daughter died.  Saying this she jumps into the water and engulfs the quilt tightly, she suddenly feels being caught only to find that Subhagi had jumped after her to prevent her from dying but Reshma forcefully let goes of Subhagi’s help and goes down into the deep waters.
Subhagi then wakes up in the hospital with Kanishk on one of her side and Pia on the other. She sees Bina smiling commandingly right in front of her. Kanishk apologises and asks Subhagi to remarry her which she defers it. Bina says that Subhagi was indeed ‘Subhag’(destined for good) to have a second chance with her family, unlike Reshma who got none and walks off.


Intended Cast:
Subhagi: Vidya Balan
Reshma: Alia Bhatt
Dev: Vicky Kaushal
Kanishk: Deepak Tijori
Bina: Swaroop Sampat
Rambo/Akeel: Tahir Raj Bhasin

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