Kanu Behl, as a writer-director, is known for showcasing gritty stories from the underbellies of metropolitan cities. He has the courage to take up these subjects and project them on the large screen for people to watch. Titli and Agra are examples of good writing and direction. Despatch, his 2024 Hindi film, a Zee5 Global Original, is about a journalist who gets a whiff of a good scoop and starts working on it without realizing the rabbit hole he has jumped into is deep, dark, and dirty.
Spoilers Ahead
Who was assigned the Shetty murder case?
Despatch began with Joy Bag and his entire office at the newspaper, Despatch, going through major changes, which included the addition of a digital team. On that day, Shetty, a powerful local gangster, was shot dead in broad daylight, and the CCTV footage on that street was captured. Joy and his team worked on the crime beat, and he took up the murder case and wanted to get to the bottom of it. He wanted to make it a front-page story in the next forty-eight hours.
Was Joy having an affair?
Joy was having an affair with his colleague Prerna Prakash, who was helping him finish the book he was writing on the life he’d spent reporting on the criminal underworld. Joy and his wife, Shweta Bag, were going through a very rough patch, both disliked each other’s company, and had stopped communicating. Joy was planning to move in with Prerna as he had emotionally cut himself off from Shweta for a very long time.
What happened during the police shootout?
Joy demanded to join the police, who were planning to raid a part of the dock in their pursuit to arrest a person in connection with the death of the gangster Shetty. During the shootout, Joy tried to catch hold of the main criminal by running after him, and in this process he got beaten up. Just before the police had reached the site of the shootout, Joy learned that his newspaper’s owners were planning to sell the company to another group. Joy asked his colleague Deva to find out more details about this takeover and the new company that would be their employer.
How did Joy learn of the GDR case?
An agitated Joy beats up the criminal arrested from the scene of the shootout in the hope of getting some information about the Shetty murder story. The criminals, out of sheer pain and agony, revealed that he had stolen the GDR papers from the Mumbai vigilance office and killed a security guard in that process. Joy was intrigued by the confession made by the criminal and asked his colleague Chetan about the GDR story. The colleague mentioned the case was a no-brainer, as the construction company was trying to get into the 2G business but was caught in the scam as they had bribed many officials. On the day of the vigilance raid, they burned up most of the important documents and the vigilance team were only able to procure a few papers which were deemed useless.
Did Joy and Prerna break up?
Joy and Prerna were supposed to look for an apartment to stay together, as he had made it clear he had no interest in living with Shweta. On the day of the apartment visit, Prerna was offended by the building association president, who spoke rudely to her. She was angry at the fact that Joy did not stand up for her, and she broke up with him on the way back to the office.
Why did Joy initially back away from the GDR story?
Joy, with the permission of his boss, began to work on the GDR story as well as the Shetty murder story. This time he promised two front-page headlines, which would be ideal for the newspaper, since it was going through a rough patch. Joy got in touch with his old peer, Noori, who was also working on the GDR story. Noori claimed that she’d tried to get close to the source of the news but got nothing. There was a rumor that D-company was involved in it, but she was unable to find anything more than that. She also mentioned lobbyist Nisha Lodha (based on Niira Radia) was still under investigation for the reports that were coming up about the GDR story and the connection to the burgeoning 2G scam.
Through Chetan he learned that the data at the Mumbai vigilance office had crashed and the IT security was done by a Delhi-based company. Using his contacts, he forged the ID of the vigilance officer and planned to question the IT security firm about what led to the data crash. The IT security team was suspicious of Joy and reluctant to reveal information. They also informed him about how the vigilance team’s IT Director, Raajan Mallick, was given access to the control room, which made Joy wonder if that man was behind the data crash and erasing everything from the cloud as well. The security team was quick to figure out Joy was a con and tried their level best to catch him. Joy escaped in no time and blackmailed Raajan Mallick, stating he knew about his involvement in the GDR story. Raajan Mallick asked him to not call him back and revealed the name of a person called Mukhtar who had instructed him to carry out this work. Joy used his contact, Ameel, to get more intel on Mukhtar, but both were attacked. After this near death incident, Joy gave up working on this story since he realized his life was in danger.
How did Joy learn of Wadhwa’s involvement?
To know more about the GDR story, he had to meet Nisha Lodha, who would refuse to talk until he brought the actual papers that named the owners of the company. Since then he gave up on the GDR story, as it was taking him to a dead end. Through Noori, he got in touch with Suresh Contractor, who was close to the Rajan gang. Joy demanded a flat in exchange for the evidence he had that would help Suresh with the case he was tied up in. This flat was for Joy and Prerna, and they wanted to move in together. Joy had a eureka moment when he realized that Suresh Contractor might know about D-Company’s movements since he was from the rival gang. Suresh did not realize he would be cornered and revealed that the papers were stolen by Mukhtar on the orders of Wadhwa (fashioned after Lalit Modi). Joy was confused as he assumed the GDR papers that were stolen were about the 2G scam, but Suresh revealed the Indian Premier League story was also involved in that.
Why was Joy in London?
Through Noori’s contact, Joy met Silva, a high-ranking police officer, to know more about Wadhwa, the Indian Premier League story, and the GDR papers. Silva let Joy know this was a big mess he was getting into but Wadhwa would be interested in talking to him. Joy was flown to London to speak to Wadhwa, and his details helped Joy deduce that the scam involved the two rich entities, telecommunication and cricket. The scam was worth 500-600 crore INR, and Joy was shocked to find out Wadhwa ran it for D-company. Wadhwa was unperturbed by the fact that Joy would publish exclusive breaking news on the 2G scam and the Indian Premier League scam and its connection to the GDR story. Wadhwa was in exile in London as it was assumed the stories about the scam were slowly breaking, and he wanted to come back home after clearing his name. In London, Joy was pampered by Wadhwa and his men. During the same trip, Nadeem Rizvi, another gangster who was fleeing from India, asked Joy to stay away from the mess he was falling into. Joy was not sure what to believe at this point, as Wadhwa had given him a guarantee that he would be safe.
What happened after Joy returned from London?
On returning to Mumbai from London, Joy was being chased by Nazeem Rizvi’s men, who let him know that there was some negotiation happening between Raajan and Wadhwa. Joy was confused as he felt he would not be harmed in this discourse since he was a journalist. Suresh and Mukhtar were right when they asked Joy to back off, but he wanted to pursue these two stories to save his newspaper.
Why was Joy’s life under threat?
Prerna and Joy had published his book, and soon he was on the verge of becoming an established author. This subplot was added to carry forward Joy’s arc towards the climax. Joy was shocked to learn that Wadhwa and Raajan patching up would put his life in danger. Since he was an outsider who knew way too much, he would be an obstacle. Joy learned that there was a bounty on him, as stated by Suresh Contractor, and right now it was established that D-company was behind the Indian Premier League and the 2G scam. There was also the question of who owned the GDR company, as they seemed to be too strong and could not be shaken. However, they were worried that if news of their involvement broke out, a lot of bureaucrats and politicians would be affected, and it might affect the democratically elected system that was running like a well-oiled machine. If Joy was eliminated, no one would have to worry about anything getting exposed.
Was Joy dead or alive?
Joy shared this distressing news with Prerna. She got scared as well and asked to file a case. With Joy’s life under threat, Prerna’s was under scrutiny as well because she did not want to end up alone or get kidnapped. She was not sure if Joy would be able to help her out. As Joy asked her to wait for him with everything they needed to run away, she was not sure if that was the right thing to do. She was sure the people seeking him out would find him from any corner of the world. Since Joy and Prerna were the targets, they could be killed at any given point. To Joy’s shock, Prerna never showed up, indicating that she did not want to get involved in this mess. Prerna may have made a decision for herself just like she did before, when she broke up with Joy for a brief period. Since Prerna wanted more from life, she chose to walk away from his volatile life, breaking his heart as he was in dire need of emotional support. Joy came across software that helped him gain access to the GDR papers. The software exposed all the shell companies that were involved in the scam, and the company that showed up repeatedly was Stone Dome.
Joy realized GDR was a shell company of Stone Dome. Joy had to do something to save himself as Silva had gone MIA. Since Noori and Nisha’s lives were in danger too, they also walked out, which rendered him alone in this mess. Joy had not seen this coming, as he’d assumed as a journalist he would be allowed to do his job. Especially after he was given a green signal by Wadhwa. The millionaire may be wanting to come back to India, and Joy’s exposé might ruin that. The only way Joy knew to save himself was to publish the news before the henchmen came for him. He had to let his boss know about the news, but he was horrified by the details that Joy had gathered. Joy was glad that his boss was courageous enough to agree to publish the news, and he began to write the story. Joy was under the impression that publishing the news would protect him and put pressure on the judiciary and the police to go after the people who had ordered his killing. He did not mind getting killed after publishing the news because once it was out, his death would be considered murder with a motive. As Joy began to write his story, he learned from Deva that the owners of their newspaper, called Savera Group, only existed on paper. Deva let him know that Savera Group was owned by GDR. Since Joy knew GDR also existed on paper and was originally Stone Dome, he now knew who owned the newspaper. He was going to publish news against his employers. Since he knew of this vicious cycle, his death was inevitable and the evidence he gathered would be destroyed in no time. He also was quick to realize that his boss had asked him to write the story to give him enough time to inform the owners of the newspapers. As shown in Madhur Bhandarkar’s film “Page 3,” the newspapers might stop him from publishing the story, and he would be forced to part with the evidence he had gathered.
Joy would lose everything he was working on. He was an awful person, but as a journalist, he was honest about his job. He wanted the exposé to happen so that the countrymen could see the real people behind these scams. The involvement of the D-Company would also amplify matters. If the politicians and entrepreneurs were named in this, governments could fall as well. Joy collected all of the evidence on learning who his employers were and met his mother and brother. Since he did not have Prerna or Shweta by his side, the only people he claimed would care for him were given the details so that they could survive in case he was shot dead. Joy was panicking as he knew his death was near and he had to sort matters before things went south. Joy was riding his bike when he was surrounded by the henchmen sent to kill him. There was no way out for him at this point, and he could not run away anymore. The plot from that point on went into fast-forward mode. Since Joy knew about the exposé, the henchmen had no choice but to eliminate him. Joy was shot dead in broad daylight at a signal. This could be reminiscent of how Shetty was murdered in broad daylight. Even though there would be CCTV footage of Joy’s death, no one would be caught in his murder case. His crusade to expose the people involved in GDR papers remained incomplete as the henchmen at the end of the film grabbed his bag and escaped in no time. Joy lay on the road dead with blood all over his body. This was as real as it could get, as many people who want to do the right thing get killed. It could be journalists like Joy, who was good at his job, or whistleblowers who want to expose corrupt people. The death of Joy was a reminder that the strong and the powerful will always get away.
