When you first start watching the movie Athomugam, it may seem like it’s going to be a sweet romantic comedy. You meet Martin, a husband who feels like he’s always failing because, no matter how hard he tries, he can never outsmart his wife Leena when it comes to surprising each other. They’ve known each other since childhood, went to the same school, and after drifting apart for a while, they reconnected in Ooty, where Leena was working at a school. They eventually got married and are living a happy life. Martin is determined to make Leena happy, and his idea of a perfect surprise is to download a hidden spy app on her phone to track her every move. His plan is to gather footage and make cute videos to surprise her (what a creepy way to surprise someone!). But here’s where things get really twisted. Martin starts noticing a man visiting their house regularly. To his shock, this man proposes to marry Leena and asks her to kill Martin! And surprisingly, Leena agrees! So, what’s going on here? Why would Leena agree to such a thing? Is there more to their story? Let’s unpack it all in Athomugam‘s explainer.
Spoilers Ahead
How did Rithvik Bansal take revenge?
Martin worked as the chief officer at a tea estate owned by Paul Thomas and his father. Martin and Paul had been friends forever. Their families were close as both of their fathers had worked in the tea estate, and after Martin’s parents died in a car accident, Paul’s family took him in and treated him like their own. Martin was deeply grateful for this, which is why he stayed loyal to Paul and the Thomas family. One day, Rithvik Bansal, who owned another tea estate, tried to recruit Martin with a better offer. Martin turned him down because he felt he owed it to Paul and his family. Bansal didn’t take this rejection lightly and decided to get revenge. Bansal’s plan was brutal. He used Leena as bait. He showed her a video of Martin with another woman and implied that if Martin didn’t come to work for him, he’d leak the video everywhere and ruin the Thomas estate. Bansal demanded that Leena give him all the important estate documents Martin had. Leena had to comply, but things got messy. Martin, spying through the hidden camera app, saw someone coming to collect the documents. That man fell in love with Leena and wanted to marry her and run away, but he needed to kill Martin first.
When Leena told Bansal about this, he was indifferent, but told her to carry a gun just in case. When Martin realized Leena and the man were planning to kill him, he followed them. To his shock, Leena ended up killing the man instead. He had been badmouthing Martin, and Leena couldn’t take it anymore; after all, Martin was her husband; she could not just stand by and listen. Martin was even more stunned when he saw her talking to Bansal and realized she had been trapped by him. Despite the chaos, Martin understood how much Leena loved him and how she was willing to sacrifice her own dignity to save Martin and keep his video from being leaked. So Martin took care of the dead body by burying it. But when he got home, Leena revealed that Bansal had told her to install a hidden spy app on Martin’s phone too. This meant that Martin’s movements were being tracked as well. The police and media discovered Martin’s connection to the dead body and began pursuing him by labeling him as the “murderer” they needed to arrest. So, not only had Martin and Leena become Bansal’s pawns, but the tea estate’s reputation was also at stake. It seemed like Bansal’s plan to drag Martin down was working perfectly.
What did Martin find out about the Thomas family?
Martin knew the only person who could help him out of this mess was Paul, his best friend. So he went to Paul’s house. When he got there, he stumbled upon a room filled with CCTV footage and audio files, and it was all tracking his every move. Martin was stunned. Why was Paul suddenly tracking him? It became clear that not only was Bansal after Martin, so was Paul; he had his own agenda. Paul’s family history was tangled with Martin’s. Paul’s grandfather had once owned a huge area of tea estates but lost it all through gambling. Paul’s father never forgave him for this. When Paul’s father met Martin’s father, Vincent, and started working for his large tea estate, he envied Martin’s family. After Vincent’s accident, Paul’s father saw an opportunity to take over the estate. He even went so far as to pull the plug on Vincent when he was admitted to the hospital to secure ownership. But the estate was still in Martin’s name; he knew that if Martin died, it would go to St. Peter’s Church, because Vincent was a devout believer in the church. So, instead of killing Martin outright, Paul and his father set up a scam to frame Martin for murder and put him in jail to make sure the estate would go to the Thomas family officially. And that’s exactly what happened. Martin was sentenced to double life imprisonment, and the estate went to Paul’s family. Martin realized that the people he had trusted most in his life had turned out to be his worst enemies. But wait, there was more to the story.
In Athomugam’s ending, when Martin asked Leena for help to get out of jail and get revenge, the police called her “Leena Thomas.” That’s when it all fell into place. Leena had been using a false identity as Leena Mahadevan all her life. She was actually Paul’s sister, and she had been playing Martin from the start to help her father’s plan succeed. It seemed like Leena had outsmarted Martin all along his entire life. He realized he had no way to escape and get justice.
But maybe there is a way after all. A few years later, a fellow inmate whom everyone addresses as “brother” offers to help Martin in exchange for Martin’s 1,000-acre tea estate. This ally gets to work right away by keeping an eye on the Thomas family and gathering all kinds of information on them. He even collects CCTV footage showing Leena traveling around on her bike. So, when their anniversary comes around, Martin decides it’s time for a little payback. From prison, Martin calls Leena and surprises her by revealing that he can see everything she’s doing—what she’s wearing, where she’s going, the whole shebang. For once, he actually manages to surprise her! So, what can happen next? Maybe Martin will decide to take revenge and kill Leena, as he has nothing to lose now. Or maybe he’ll use this chance to threaten her instead. With the help of his new connections, he might be able to scare her into helping him get out of jail by threatening to harm her family. There’s a real chance Martin could finally get some justice and not just be a pawn in someone else’s game. It’s a moment where he might take control and show that he’s not going to be played around anymore.
