Zee5’s 2024 movie House of Lies is mediocre, to say the least. Thank goodness it’s only 1 hour and 22 minutes long, because it would have been tough to sit through if it were any longer. The story isn’t thrilling or exciting at all. The characters and their bad acting could put you to sleep because nothing is really happening in the story. There’s no big mystery revealed in House of Lies, and the twist at the end is quite foolish, to be honest. Anyway, let’s dive into the story. In today’s world, cryptocurrency is a huge deal. There’s a man named Albert Pinto (played by late Rituraj K. Singh) who earned 35 crores in cryptocurrency. On the day of Albert’s birthday, he gets murdered. Naturally, Investing officer Rajveer Singh Chowdhury (Sanjay Kapoor), Shyam Singh, the recordist, Sub Inspector Abhay Mathur (Hiten Paintal), and Crime Branch Inspector Sashi (Simran Kaur Suri) are on the case to solve this whodunit. Everyone assumes the murder happened because of greed over his money. So, who are the prime suspects? Those who attended the birthday party. The big question is: who ends up with the money, and who murdered Albert Pinto? Let’s find out!
Spoilers Ahead
How was the relationship between the attendees and Albert?
On the day of Albert Pinto’s birthday, he was murdered. The suspected motive behind the murder was his 35 crores earned from cryptocurrency. At least, that’s what everyone thought. As the case began, we were introduced to the team solving it: Rajveer Singh Chowdhury was the investigating officer, along with Shyam Singh, the recordist, Sub Inspector Abhay Mathur, and Crime Branch Inspector Sashi. Rajveer had a reputation for solving cases within a week, so everyone held him in high regard. Albert’s dead body was found in his study. The first person to see the body was Zaid, his house caretaker. Zaid was homosexual, so people thought he was very safe for the women in the house, which was one reason Albert hired him. For his services, Zaid earned over twenty thousand rupees per month, and Zaid was more than happy with that. The woman who called and informed the police about the murder was Albert’s wife, Ragini. They had been together for a long time, and Ragini’s confession made it clear that she really loved Albert. She was eager to find out who killed him because she believed everyone was involved in the murder for the money.
There was also Colonel Verma, with whom Albert first talked about cryptocurrency. The colonel tried to force Albert to invest the money with one of his friends in Dubai to double it, saying it would be too late otherwise. We see how Albert didn’t want to do it, and he kept on pushing him to do so. Maybe the colonel was the murderer, thinking he could use that money for his own benefit. However, all fingers pointed to Albert’s brother, Anthony. On the outside, Anthony seemed to like Albert, but deep down, he hated him. Their father had left everything to Albert. Even though Albert took care of Anthony like a son, Anthony was angry and jealous. Not just because of the money, but also because his wife, Aastha, was cheating on him with Albert. He couldn’t bear it, but he ignored it to avoid going insane, or at least that’s what he told the police. Anthony wasn’t so good himself; he’d had an affair with the colonel’s wife. Aastha, Anthony’s wife, seemed like a very cunning lady. She was not only having an affair with Albert but also with a lawyer named Karan. It was clear she was using people for her own benefit. Another suspect was Dr. Fernandez, who was Albert’s doctor. Albert didn’t really believe in doctors or medicine, but recently he had been suffering from severe anxiety attacks. The doctor had been giving him Xanax to manage the panic, even though he knew it had some bad side effects. So, all these people had some kind of connection to the murder in one way or another. It was clear that none of them were entirely innocent.
Who killed Albert?
From Albert’s dead body, it was clear there were multiple attempts to kill him. There was a yellowish tone in his nostrils, indicating he was given chloroform, and bruises on his neck, suggesting he was choked. However, the report indicated something different: Albert had died due to poisoning. By the time he smelled the chloroform, he was already dead. This suggested that multiple people attempted to murder him, all for the money. After reviewing the CCTV footage, Rajveer Singh Chowdhury and his team pieced together how Albert was murdered. Though money was the main motive, personal agendas played a role too. It turned out that everyone had tried to kill Albert. First, the chloroform was bought by Zaid at the request of Albert’s wife, Ragini. She didn’t do it for money. She loved Albert and couldn’t tolerate his affair with Aastha. Ragini had been a loyal wife, but Albert chose Aastha over her because Ragini couldn’t have children. This hurt Ragini deeply, so she tried to kill Albert with chloroform.
Later that night, another person came to Albert’s study to kill him: his brother, Anthony. Anthony was the black sheep of the family, having lost all his money in his business. He was angry and frustrated and wanted money from Albert, who refused to give it to him. Albert knew his brother too well and knew he would lose the money again. Anthony also had pent-up aggression toward Albert for stealing his wife. In a fit of rage, Anthony choked Albert. The poisoning, however, was due to something else. As mentioned earlier, Albert had become addicted to Xanax to manage his anxiety attacks. He felt threatened by his close family members because of his money. So he had a severe anxiety attack on the night of his birthday. Doctor Fernandez knowingly gave him a drug overdose, which led to the poisoning found in his body. Everyone knew about these murder attempts because they were all after Albert’s money. It was premeditated; they all wanted to kill him and divide the money among themselves. In House of Lies‘ ending, everyone was arrested on charges of murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.
After the case was closed, we saw that Inspector Sashi witnessed Rajveer Singh Chowdhury shaking hands with Zaid as the investigation ended. This indicated one thing: Rajveer knew about the money. By then, the murderers had been found, but the money was still missing. Everyone started to think that, as they couldn’t find the cryptocurrency passwords, maybe there was no money after all. Rajveer even said that if the money was still there, David, Albert’s cousin, might have changed the passwords. However, this wasn’t the case. After arresting Zaid, Sashi discovered that Zaid knew about the money and the passwords and had given them to Rajveer, who promised him half the money. Rajveer moved to Canada as soon as he got the money because he didn’t want to take any risks. Rajveer’s character shows how even in a noble profession like law enforcement, there are individuals who are greedy and dishonest. The way he manipulated everyone throughout the case was something else. Even though we see that he escaped at the end of House of Lies, we hope that the authorities will eventually find and arrest him to serve justice.
