You know you are in for a bumpy and shaky train ride when the film begins with a CGI version of a drone shot of the city of Mumbai, which is tacky and unnecessary. “Dhokha: Round D Corner” is a crime thriller that revolves around a woman named Saanchi Sinha who is diagnosed with a personality disorder. Saanchi is taken hostage by a threatening terrorist with some goal in his mind. This film follows the scuttle of Saanchi and the terrorist from there onwards. “Dhokha: Round D Corner” is a weird mix of cat-and-mouse chase and puzzle, where everyone tries to figure out whose narrative is reliable.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Dhokha: Round D Corner’ Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
The first scene of “Dhokha: Round D Corner” is a montage of a song where we see Yathaarth and Saanchi happily married. They move into a new apartment and set up the place, but slowly cracks start appearing in their marriage. More fights lead to more upsets, and Saanchi is fed up with the amount of work she is putting in to make this house run with no appreciation in return. Yathaarth is a workaholic and shows hints of being a control maniac who is trying to help but can’t seem to get a grip on Saanchi’s life. One morning, Saanchi angrily asks him to speak to his lawyers regarding the divorce, which she has been demanding for months, but Yathaarth ignores her and does not say a word to her. Saanchi also mentions she will be heading to the UK soon. Yathaarth heads to work in a disgruntled mood and speaks to his boss about his situation at work. His boss has asked him to head the client meeting abroad, something Yathaarth is not keen on, even though he spearheaded the meeting to get their account. Yathaarth is upset, but his boss encourages him to take this meeting for his and this company’s growth. Yathaarth is also speaking to Saanchi’s psychiatrist, Vidya, who is helping Saanchi deal with her situation at home. Yathaarth and Saanchi’s marriage has reached a deadlock; she is tired of seeing what Yathaarth has become and is unwilling to understand something has tragically gone wrong in their marriage. Saanchi is livid, Yathaarth is annoyed, and both can’t seem to find a solution to deal with this matter.
At his workplace, as he watches the news, Yathaarth sees the reporters at the gated compound where he lives covering a breaking story of a terrorist walking in without being supervised or identified. He has taken a woman hostage, who now lives alone on the third floor. Yathaarth has an inkling it is Saanchi, and he rushes to the scene of the hostage situation. Yathaarth is now sure the woman the terrorist has taken hostage is Saanchi. Yathaarth is confused about what is happening; he informs the police that the apartment is his, and his wife Saanchi has a personality disorder that will aggravate if she isn’t given particular medications every four hours. ACP Harish Malik is the man of the moment; he is running the operation at hand. The terrorist Haq Gul’s first demand is to release Jibran. Haq Gul is determined to get things the way he wants, but he also realizes he has taken a beautiful woman as a hostage, which is making it difficult for him to converse with her. Haq Gul is known to be a terrorist who killed 12 boys living in a hostel by planting a bomb on the hostel’s premises. Gul says he came to Mumbai to work and earn money. He started as a delivery boy and was content with the work he was allotted. One of his work-related errands involved delivering a parcel at the boys’ hostel. The parcel turned out to be a bomb that went off, and Haq ended up being accused of terrorism. Haq claims he always wanted to be an honest citizen and work regular jobs. He never wanted to be branded a terrorist and live the life of one.
Meanwhile, ACP Harish Malik concocts another story about Haq Gul. ACP Malik says Haq is a trained terrorist who came down to Mumbai intending to bomb the location assigned to him. He aimed to create chaos using the bomb he made. Malik claims he was the one who arrested him. He is under tremendous pressure from his superiors to end this hostage situation as soon as possible. His superior officers are being pressured to bring in the NSG commandos as a show of power struggle between political parties. Malik is trying his level best to end the hostage situation with no casualties at stake.
‘Dhokha: Round D Corner’ Ending Explained – Who Killed Saanchi Sinha? What Happens To Haq Gul And Yathaarth?
Saanchi turns out to be exactly what Yaatharth said. A person who says things that were never mentioned before. Yaatharth instructs Haq to add the pills to anything she eats or drinks for her to consume the medicines. Haq does it by adding the pills to the tea that she has prepared. Saanchi starts luring Haq to bring him to her side so that he will fight for her cause when the time comes. Saanchi is sure of the fact that Yathaarth and her psychiatrist, Vidya, are having an affair. Yathaarth cannot break off his marriage, for Saanchi is rich, and ending their marriage would mean losing all the money she has. She believes giving him her psychiatric medicines would help him, and Vidya can prove that Saanchi requires treatment at an asylum, which will pave the way for him to be the sole caretaker of her money. Haq falls for Saanchi’s seduction and agrees to help her get out of this situation. He promises to help her elope with him and leave the life she is leading. They can lead a happy life in Kashmir, their home state. Saanchi is aware of what she is doing, and she is using every trick in her book so that she can get out of the situation. She convinces him to empty the gun, take her downstairs, and on the pretext of holding her hostage with an empty gun of which only she and Haq are aware, take her to the car in the basement and drive off. Saanchi plays smart and thinks her charm will help her bring him to his knees and do the deed as she pleases. Unfortunately for him, the plan goes awry when she announces, while he is holding her, that the gun is empty. Haq breaks the glass door and threatens to kill her with the shard of glass.
Haq is livid over the fact that he fell for a woman’s white lie. He makes sure she remains a hostage and in his custody while he keeps changing his demands. He now demands 50 lacs and a car for him to drive off in. The government is unwilling to give out such a ransom for the hostage, so Yathaarth takes it upon himself to arrange for the cash so that he can rescue his wife. He gets his money from his account and his friend. Yathaarth is ready to offer the cash to the Haq, but Malik stops him from doing so at the moment. Yathaarth shares his plea about dealing with a wife who not only has a personality disorder but is having an affair with another man. Yathaarth comes across as a man who has values and lives by them. He starts considering Malik as a friend and confides in him about his marital issues. Malik, meanwhile, sympathizes with Yathaarth’s situation and consoles him, saying that Mumbai Police can solve the situation quickly. On receiving the ransom money, Haq is instructed on how to maneuver the situation once Yathaarth enters his home. As Yathaarth heads to his apartment, a few minutes later, several gunshots are heard; Malik heads to the apartment with his force only to see Saanchi dead and Haq constantly repeating that he did not kill her. Haq is arrested again, tried for the crime, and sentenced to death; additionally, it is proven that he is mentally unstable, which gives him a special grant because he can’t be hanged unless he is proven mentally stable.
As Haq Gul is sent back to jail, Yathaarth’s reality is revealed. Saanchi was right about Yathaarth trying to prove her mentally unstable to gain control over her assets. Yathaarth, along with Vidya, gave her medicines that deteriorated Saanchi’s mental health, contrary to what he claimed to the public. When he went upstairs with the ransom money to confront Haq, he used this opportunity to tell Saanchi the truth about his intentions and used Haq’s control over the gun to shoot her multiple times. Meanwhile, ACP Malik’s reality is also revealed: he and Saanchi had an affair when she came by his police station to get her police verification done. On realizing Saanchi intends to marry an already married ACP Malik, he bribes and convinces Haq Gul to kill her so that he can establish Haq to be mentally unstable, rescuing him from the harrowing death sentence. Finally, Haq’s reality is revealed, for he says to Saanchi that he knows ACP Malik is trying to kill her and that he wants Haq to kill her in her apartment. But if Haq takes her down forcefully, no one can kill you. Haq requests for her to avenge him if Malik kills Haq in any hustle that ensues. Both men in Saanchi’s life wanted to eliminate her for their selfish reasons. Yathaarth was greedy, and ACP Malik was afraid of the fact that this affair would cost him his family. Saanchi paid for it in the end because all this time, she was right about her husband but wrong about her lover. Saanchi’s life was played like a game of chess by men who never valued her. Of all the people in this game, Haq turns out to be the most naïve and gullible, for he falls for Saanchi’s charms and ACP Malik’s lies. He believed them, and they betrayed him.
Final Thoughts
“Dhokha: Round D Corner” is a definition of a no–brainer and what just happened. This film lacked the basics that are required in a film: a screenplay, editing, story, and bad acting. “Dhokha: Round D Corner,” a film that has “D” in the middle of its title instead of “the,” shows the work that must have gone into making this brittle script unbearable on screen and OTT. Over-the-top dialogue delivery, sloppy screenplay, and outrageously bad performances by male actors are generally considered one of the best in the industry. The unnecessary twists and turns gave “Dhokha: Round D Corner” an Abbas Mustan touch, but this film lacked masala, which was a staple in Abbas Mustan films. “Dhokha: Round D Corner” could have been a film about anything other than the subject matter in the film.
“Dhokha: Round D Corner” is now streaming on Netflix with subtitles.
