Dhokha: Round D Corner 2022

Saanchi Sinha, Khushali Kumar, and Yathaarth Sinha, R. Madhavan, are a married couple whose relationship hangs by a thread. Saanchi pushes Yaatharth to consult a divorce lawyer and dreams of moving to the United Kingdom, setting a tense backdrop for what follows. One day, while Saanchi is alone at home, Yaatharth spots a breaking news report: Haq Riyaz Gul, a terrorist, has checked into his apartment complex. By the time he rushes over, the police are already present, and ACP Harishchandra Malik is negotiating with Gul, though the hostage situation quickly spirals into a bloody stalemate. The media swarm outside spins the incident into sensational coverage, turning a personal crisis into a public spectacle. Yaatharth warns Malik that Saanchi has been diagnosed with delusional disorder, and suggests that if she misses her prescribed pills, she could become more dangerous than Gul herself.

Inside the apartment, Saanchi remains calm as she confides in Gul that Yaatharth is trying to sabotage her by tampering with her medication. She implies a complex web where he would gain control of her wealth as a caretaker while continuing an affair with her psychiatrist, Vidya, whom she has observed acting suspiciously around them. Gul, angered and uneasy, tells Saanchi to stay quiet. When Malik contacts Gul, Yaatharth pleads with him to give Saanchi her medication; otherwise, she risks a relapse. Overheard by Saanchi during the tense conversations, she asks Gul to refrain from administering the pills, all while flirting with him to buy time.

Gul reveals a troubling backstory: he didn’t know the bomb he delivered to a boy’s hostel would kill 13 people, a tragedy he has borne the burden of because of a betrayal by his Kashmir-based uncle and a wrongful conviction. He insists that the evidence pinned him for the crime he did not commit. Gul then threatens Malik, warning that Saanchi’s life will be forfeit if his demands aren’t met. A heated debate arises between Yaatharth and Malik about how to proceed, especially when Yaatharth insists on entering the apartment with Malik and the police alone.

In the apartment, Saanchi begins to manipulate Gul further, attempting to stage a fake hostage situation as a means of escape. She secretly signals the police by exposing that Gul’s gun magazine is empty, breaking Gul’s trust in front of the officers. Gul, undeterred, manages to pull Saanchi back into the apartment and she quickly starts behaving differently—she probes Gul’s identity and how he managed to gain entry. Gul, growing increasingly agitated, binds Saanchi to a chair in the living room and reveals that he had covertly given Saanchi her pills through the tea she prepared.

As the hours pass, Saanchi tries to reassert control through intimacy, but Gul’s resolve wavers. She declares that all men are the same—Yaatharth, Gul, and even “him.” Gul’s mood shifts again, and he discards the pills, revealing plans to run away with Saanchi. Malik and Yaatharth decide to offer a ransom of INR 50 lakhs to secure Gul’s surrender and bring the stand-off to a quick close. Yaatharth returns to his apartment bearing the money, and then gunfire erupts. When the dust settles, Saanchi lies dead in Yaatharth’s arms, and Gul proclaims that Yaatharth shot her, not Gul.

In court, Yaatharth presents a version of events in which Saanchi begged for his help as soon as he entered the apartment, while Gul claims that both Saanchi and Yaatharth had verbally abused each other and that a struggle for the gun ensued. Malik reveals the depth of Gul’s mental illness and the accompanying medical evidence, which keeps Gul’s death sentence in limbo until he is treated. The judge upholds the earlier sentence for Gul, with Saanchi’s death added to the charges against him, but the execution remains on hold pending Gul’s recovery.

A further twist emerges: it is revealed that Yaatharth, aided by Vidya, had given Saanchi the wrong medication. The “third person” Saanchi referred to as Gul turns out to be Malik, whom she had blackmailed by falsely accusing him of rape to force his cooperation. Malik confesses his role in the broader plot to eliminate Saanchi, plotting with Gul to trigger an escape during a jail transfer. Malik’s involvement is framed as a bid to save themselves from a harsher fate, painting a picture where Gul did not kill anyone, but was driven to instability and confinement in a mental institution, where he imagines Saanchi. The tale thus closes with a web of deceit: Yaatharth deceived Saani, and Gul was deceived by both Saani and Malik, each character delivering a different form of “Dhokha” to the others.