Blackmail 2018

Dev Kaushal Irrfan Khan is a toilet paper sales executive trapped in a life that feels dull both at work and at home. One day, hoping to brighten things up for his wife, he returns early from the office, only to walk in on Reena Kaushal Kirti Kulhari in bed with another man, Ranjit Arora Arunoday Singh. Instead of reacting with anger, he quietly steps back and decides to shadow the man to uncover who he really is and what he’s hiding.

Ranjit, who is married to Dolly Verma Divya Dutta, comes from money and privilege, and Dev quickly realizes there’s more to the affair than a moment of passion. Dolly’s father’s wealth becomes a tool in a dangerous game, as Ranjit arranges cash from Dolly and, when pressed to return it, shifts the tension onto Reena. Dev quietly reveals his plan to a wary colleague Anand, though the dynamic inside the office is volatile and ethically murky. Reena pleads for money, claiming it’s for her father’s treatment, and Dev ends up supplying funds by routing money through Ranjit—money that Reena then discards in a dustbin, leaving Dev to retrieve it again.

Meanwhile, Dev’s boss Omi Vaidya pushes a brutal scheme of his own: he wants to sabotage the city’s water supply to illustrate why people need toilet paper. His plan forces Dev to navigate a narrow line between professional ambition and moral compromise, as he tries to convince the Municipal corporation to shut off water for 12 hours—an act that would ripple through ordinary lives. The plot thickens when Anand, who harbors a crush on Prabha Ghatpande Anuja Sathe, takes her out on a date and ends up learning about Dev’s machinations. Prabha, meanwhile, uses a sharp sense of pride and personal ambition to blur the lines between victim and conspirator.

Prabha becomes entangled in Dev’s ruse as she begins to blackmail him for more money, leading to a tense confrontation. When the two clash at her apartment, an argument sends her tumbling and she dies under suspicious circumstances. Prabha’s parents rush in, leaving Dev to improvise a desperate escape by donning a mask fashioned from a paper bag. The next morning, the police are everywhere, and Anand tries to leverage the truth to his advantage, threatening exposure. Dev persuades Anand to keep quiet, while a detective, Chawla [Gajraj Rao], begins to shadow the case and pressure Dev for a payoff.

As the net tightens, Dolly follows Ranjit and discovers him with Reena in a cinema hall, intensifying the couple’s precarious web of lies. Anand, now out of custody, clashes with Dev, who tempts him with the lure of money to keep him quiet. Chawla’s blackmail grows uglier, and Dolly’s father becomes increasingly desperate as Dolly’s murder remains a looming shadow. In a bid to control the narrative, Dev stages a blow-by-blow sequence of moves: he forces Ranjit to pay Chawla, and when Reena asks for more money, Dev refuses to keep feeding the cycle.

Dev then engages in a more careful hunt for the truth, following Reena as she sells her jewelry and lazily discards cash in a Mall dustbin. Ranjit beats him to the money, but Dev manages to drain the stash with the help of a bribed security guard and passes the funds to Chawla. He compels Chawla to tell Ranjit that the blackmailer is Anand, a lie that provokes Ranjit to kill Anand in a fit of cowardly greed. Dev sends photos of Ranjit pocketing the cash to Reena, signaling a dangerous escalation. Dolly’s parents, now aware of their daughter’s fate, bring the case to the police, tightening the noose around the conspirators.

Back home, a quiet moment between Dev and Reena reveals the emotional toll of lies: Reena deletes Ranjit’s contact and asks when Dev will return home, while Dev deletes Reena’s contact and walks away from the office—each choosing isolation over truth.

A mid-credits scene reveals the unintended consequence of the anti-water scheme: bottled water sales soar as the city suffers from the disruption. The film closes with a wistful flashback—a wedding song that hints at Dev and Reena’s life together seven years earlier, a reminder of what they were and what their schemes have cost.

• Cameo presence: Urmila Matondkar appears in a song, adding a glimmer of glitz to the unfolding chaos. A subtle thread runs through the narrative as families, secrets, and ambitions collide, leaving everyone with choices about loyalty, guilt, and perhaps a chance at redemption.