I’ve seen a lot of murder mysteries lately, and let me tell you that nobody’s ever had as much of a multiple personality disorder (of sorts) as the new film Devil: The British Secret Agent. The film is just not sure what kind of murder mystery it is. Is it a historical drama plus a murder mystery, or just a crime drama murder mystery? I say this because filmmakers are spicing things up when it comes to this particular genre. We never get a straightforward plot these days because it would be called out as boring, perhaps. Devil: The British Secret Agent merges anything and everything to keep us guessing who the murderer was. And not just that, there is the angle of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose getting affected by the murders. The film is a period drama, action thriller, mystery, comedy, and romantic drama all rolled into one, and I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing. The idea seems exciting, mixing in the legendary stories of Indian Independence with a localized murder mystery case, but the story takes such a hammering because the film has so much to say that, after a point, one forgets it was essentially a murder mystery they were watching.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
This is at a time when India had not gained its independence yet. During the fervor of the freedom struggle, Subash Chandra Bose had set up the Indian National Army (INA), and he was supposed to land in India. The British Colonel Bracken was waiting to catch Bose, and for that, he became dependent on a mole in Bose’s army—a man codenamed Agent Trojan. Another agent named Devil, an Indian man, was chosen by Bracken to solve the murder of a landlord’s recently deceased daughter, and soon Devil figures out that he will have to take some radical measures, possibly going against his British masters, to solve the case. But as an Indian, he also has to keep in mind the freedom movement. The case ultimately hinges on the identity of a person named Trivarna, who was Bose’s closest aide.
How Did Agent Devil Win Nyshada’s Affection?
The case seemed unsolvable. The first suspect, who had already been arrested, was the dead girl’s father. He had seen his daughter Vijaya meeting in secret with a servant named Bhuma, and he’d killed her in rage. That was the theory anyway, but Devil knew that something was off. The murder weapon, a sword, had to have been used by a left-handed man judging by the wound, and Vijaya’s father was right-handed. There was the couple Patwari and Rosy as well, who were in contention as suspects, but soon Devil realized that they too had not killed Vijaya, although there was reason for Patwari to kill Vijaya, as he wanted to hurt her father for having an affair with Rosy. Another dead body, that of cook Rani, turned up, and Bhuma too was found dead, along with his father. This was turning out to be a complex case, and the first clue Devil got was by following Nyshada, Vijaya’s cousin. A shady figure had come to meet her in the middle of the night, and a secret code was being talked about. Nyshada had acted quite innocent all the while, but clearly she was involved in something quite murky.
There was a reason a secret agent had been sent into a village to solve the case. Bracken and his deputy Bell thought that Vijaya’s house was being used to transfer messages to give instructions to Bose on how to plan his landing so as to avoid capture by the British soldiers. Devil had finally found that it was Nyshada who was using Morse code to send and receive messages, and the shady man was one of the members of the INA. Bracken had the code, thanks to Agent Trojan, but did not have the key to decipher it. Devil got Vijaya’s father out of jail and won Nyshada’s affection, making it clear that he was a force for good and wanted to find the real culprit. He had to explain his growing fondness for Nyshada to Bracken, and there was a clear reason for it. The messages had to be sent by Nyshada herself; otherwise, Bose would smell something was off and change his plan. Devil made it look like he was keeping a close eye on the enemy, but the reality was quite the opposite.
Why Did Manimekala Kill Clement?
Nyshada was being followed by Devil, and it was clear she was meeting with members of the press, including a man named Shafi. They were all ground workers for the INA, and the messages were being transferred to a person named Trivarna. Many of the workers believe that there was a mole in their secret society, which is why one of their workers, Shankar, was caught. Clement was the British officer who had killed Shankar’s pregnant wife, and it was time for revenge. Nyshada typed up the messages, and through the secret society, they reached a Congress Party leader, a woman named Manimekala. She was deemed to be Trivarna, and it was quite possible because she had a lot of power with the masses, and Bose could have appointed her as his chief. She was the one who killed Clement, and there were eyewitnesses, but Bracken wasn’t willing to believe that Bose’s chief could be a woman, and that too someone who professed to be a Gandhian in front of the massive crowds.
Why Were Vijaya, Rani, And Bhuma Killed?
Devil’s loyalty was never on one side. He behaved very flexibly, and it seemed he had fallen in love with Nyshada. So when Bracken decided to have INA’s code encryptor killed, Devil saved her. He had a plan to get the code to Manimekala, but Shafi was caught, and later she too was arrested. The code had the message ‘all clear’ on it, which had to be signaled via a lighthouse so that Bose would land in Puri. Devil was playing both sides in the beginning, and slowly he completely came over to INA’s favor, saving Nyshada from getting arrested. He did so because he was Trivarna, Bose’s chief, who had infiltrated the British Secret Service. He wanted to be close to Nyshada and the case because he knew that was the opportunity to find Agent Trojan, who was responsible for getting Shankar arrested. He had to be caught before Bose made his landing.
The crucial thing was that Rani was found with a key on her, which was a duplicate of a key for a door that was rarely opened. Agent Devil thought she had made the duplicate key to let Bhuma enter safely to meet Vijaya. But when he figured that the shady man coming in to meet with Nyshada was a man named Samudra, who was also a member of INA, he understood that Rani had made the key for him. He was Agent Trojan, who had stolen the code from Nyshada, but Vijaya had seen him, and therefore she had to be silenced. Rani saw the blood on his shirt, and she too met the same fate. Nyshada didn’t know that Samudra was Agent Trojan, and he used that fact brilliantly. He told Nyshada that Devil was a British agent trying to infiltrate the INA, and she must leave for Puri, as Manimekala, the proxy ‘Trivarna’, was in jail and couldn’t signal the message of ‘all clear’ to Bose. In a dramatic turn of events, Devil tried to stop Nyshada from going off with Samudra but was shot by her instead. He did manage to beep his car horn to pass on a morse code, which made her realize that Samudra was the traitor and she shouldn’t signal to Bose to land.
During the ending of Devil: The British Secret Agent, Bracken was killed by Devil, who came armed to the teeth with all the firepower he had under his control. He was, after all, Bose’s chief. He had helped Manimekala and Shafi escape from prison and killed everyone in his path who knew his true identity. He killed Samudra as well, who was the last remaining person who could inform the British Secret Service that he was a double agent. Bose never arrived, as Nyshada never gave a green light to the landing. The case was solved, and the traitor in the INA had been neutralized. Agent Devil chose not to be part of history books, so his real identity as Trivarna remained a secret. He continued to work for the British Secret Service, for they thought he had killed a member of the INA and helped Britain’s cause. God only knows how many of their missions he thwarted before India got her independence.
