Created by Tanuja Chandra, Amazon Prime’s latest addition to their long list of all-female-oriented series, “Hush Hush,” starts off well but, just like any other thriller, fails to leave any impact or give a heart-wrenching message in the end. Since the release of “Paatal Lok,” very few Indian thrillers have succeeded in touching the bar set by it. “Hush Hush” carries the pretty general idea of promoting feminism in every way possible and begins with a completely different tone. But, as soon as we reach midway through the series, we find out that this series is no different than the rest of the thrillers on the internet. Let’s find out how the series ends and whether the ending suggests a possible “Hush Hush” Season 2.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In ‘Hush Hush’ Season 1?
The story revolves around four friends: Ishi, Saiba, Dolly, and Zaira. Ishi (Juhi Chawla) is a famous PR consultant who handles many high-profile clients. She has made a great fortune doing that. Saiba (Soha Ali Khan) used to be a journalist, but she left her profession after one of her colleagues was killed during a news hunt. She has a husband, Ranveer (Chaitannya Choudhry), and two children. Dolly (Kritika Kamra) is the wife of Aditya (Nitish Kapoor), whose family has a diamond business of their own. She is a big-time fashion designer who has recently planned to open up her own store in Dubai. These four are very close friends, yet they know very little about Ishi. Ishi handles her personal affairs with secrecy so that no one can find out anything about her past or what she deals with daily.
The story of Ishi’s past begins on a night in 1978 in Kolkata. She and Meera (Ayesha Jhulka) used to pick up whatever they could. Since they were both growing up in a shelter and looking for a couple to adopt them, Ishi and Meera became pretty close, like sisters. Ishi would protect Meera from each and every peril. One day, when a couple arrived to adopt Ishi, Ishi asked Meera to go instead of her. So, their relationship was perfect until Ishi became a big shot in the big city. Meera’s son was suffering from some illness, and she was living a callous life. Without knowing what to do, Meera sought help from Ishi. Ishi then introduced her to Vinayak, a promoter of some sort with many properties under his name. Vinayak lent Meera the place, and an orphanage named “Moksha” was opened there.
Five years after these events, we find that Ishi has faced some difficulties in her line of work, and the media is tearing her apart. It seems like this time round, she is in deep trouble. She plans to leave the country once and for all, so before leaving, she decides to meet with her childhood sister, Meera. There she finds out about the ongoing girl trafficking racket operating at Moksha. Ishi never knew about such incidents, so she asked Meera to immediately stop all the illegal activities. Meera then tells her that the family that had taken her when she was a kid physically abused her regularly. Meera accuses Ishi for this, as Ishi had asked her to go with the family first. However, Ishi did it out of goodwill, but Meera held her responsible for her situation. Ishi is devastated and wants to sort everything out, so she asks Vinayak to meet as soon as possible.
Ishi and her three friends are invited to the same party where Vinayak is. The party is held to celebrate the anniversary of Aditya’s parents, Dolly’s in-law. Ishi asks Vinayak to stop the illegal trafficking immediately; in return, she is willing to give him money, land, or anything else he wants. Vinayak tries to make her understand that she can never buy his client because they are beyond that. This creates a ruckus between them; coincidentally, Zaira sees this brawl from the terrace. Zaira follows them and finds out that Vinayak has planned to kill Ishi. Soon, Dolly and Saiba also join, and Dolly accidentally kills Vinayak with Ishi’s pistol. They dump his body, and the following day we find out that Ishi has committed suicide.
A young female inspector named Geeta (Karishma Tanna) heads the investigation. She learns that three of Ishi’s friends are hiding something. She also finds out about Meera, who was left with Ishi’s belongings. Soon we see Saiba, Dolly, and Zaira start their own investigation and makeup lies to hide the fact that they had encountered Vinayak the night before Ishi committed suicide. Saiba grabs Vinayak’s wallet before dumping his body, and there she finds his parking token. She collects his car and finds a piece of paper full of initials that look like a diamond business. There we see a character named Kashi who confronts Saiba, asking her what she knows about Vinayak’s disappearance. He even follows her all the time. Kashi once followed Saiba’s family on their trip and attacked her husband, Ranveer; he also threatened her son, Zyan. Later, Geeta discovered that the initials were nothing regarding the diamond business but the names of the girls of ‘Moksha.’ Geeta, along with her other three friends, realized that this case was now about girl trafficking too.
Kashi’s actions were followed by those of Advait and Baldev Dalal(Dolly’s father-in-law). Soon we find out that Advait kills Kashi to remove any trace of Baldev’s involvement in such crimes related to Ishi. Meanwhile, Geeta stops the girl trafficking business. Meera kills her husband and tells Geets about Ishi’s farmhouse in Delhi. The police found Kashi’s dead son and a young girl buried in the backyard. In between, Zaira’s employee Meher (Kavya Trehan) was present that night when Dolly had killed Vinayak. She saw the whole incident and started blackmailing Zaira. However, later, she confessed and handed over the clip to Zaira. But, at the end of “Hush Hush” Season 1, we see CBI Inspector Shantanu (Jaaved Jaaferi) taking over the case, and he has the clip with him. We also see a woman’s body being discovered. We had seen this woman earlier in the series. She used to work in a saloon nearby and was Geeta’s lover.
What Is The HushWeb, Exactly?
We see Kashi approaching Ishi’s place with a pistol in his hand. Ishi is emailing someone at ‘Hushweb.’ Hushweb’s identity remains unknown; however, we can assume that Ishi hides a very dark truth. She knows her fight is against someone she can not handle single-handedly. So, she is screaming out for help. Her username on Hushweb is “Lemon Seed.” At the beginning of “Hush Hush” Season 1, we see Rekha, Ishi’s maid, ironing a lemon-colored saree; interestingly, there are also some lemons present in the scene. This saree was supposed to be her dress at Dala’s anniversary party. She could not wear it, though. Anyway, we see Ishi admitting how much trouble she was in this time, and she is asking the recipient of the email to not get angry with her. She also mentions in that email that the message must be sent to someone else. So, Ishi is working for a group that can control situations like this. There are obviously some darker things we are about to realize about Hushweb. The email’s subject line says, “What is to be known?” Well, it is the episode’s title, for one thing.
Did Ishi Commit Suicide?
Now, about Ishi’s death. Well, it could be a murder, as we see Kashi approaching her house with a gun in his hand. But, he couldn’t doubt Vinayak’s death that early unless he was informed. Although Baldev Dalal was monitoring Kashi’s every movement, he would’ve known if Kashi had killed Ishi. As he never mentioned it, we can assume that Ishi committed suicide, or at least she was willing to with a gun in her hand. Whatever it was, it appeared to be a suicide attempt. Kashi may have entered the house, but only to find Ishi’s dead body in the bathroom.
Who Killed Radha And Why?
The last discovered body was Radha’s. She was in a romantic relationship with the investigation officer, Geeta. We see Meher giving an angry look toward Saiba, Zaira, and Dolly, the reason of which is not yet established. Meher possibly has a weakness for Zaira as she used to follow her like a creepy stalker. So, the theory is that Meher followed Geeta to the salon and found out about her relationship with Radha. She wants to remove Geeta from the case since she is making progress in the case; Meher’s chances of getting caught increase with each passing moment. So, she kills Radha to send a message to Geeta so that she stays away from the case. She appears to have failed in her ambition, as CBI is now on her tail.
‘Hush Hush’ Ending, Explained: Who Was Running The Human Trafficking Racket?
When Ishi had asked Vinayak to stop the human trafficking racket, Vinayak resisted. Ishi offered him money, but he said the person involved could not be bought. Why? Well, money can buy everything. So, what’s the problem? Simple. What if the one person you wish to buy doesn’t need money because he is one of the wealthiest guys in the city, or maybe in the country? Baldev Dalal is a diamond dealer and has a business beyond recognition. For him, money is nothing but a thing to toy with. So, when Vinayak was saying, there is the most straightforward guess that it might be Baldev Dalal who is behind everything. But, there is another person involved in this mess. Manjit Dalal, the wife of Baldev Dalal, We see Advait talking about a gift left for the police at the farm in Delhi, apart from Kashi’s dead body. The gift was the body of the young girl. But Baldev seemed a bit confused. It looked like he did not even know about the young girl or the girl trafficking. Earlier, we have seen Baldev’s grandmother refusing to eat from Manjit’s hands. She calls her names and also blames her for stealing her heirloom jewelry. So, in conclusion, we can only assume that Manjit Dalal operated the girl trafficking business by hiding behind Baldev’s name. It can’t be Aditya, for sure. He seemed nice while handling Saiba’s kids. It was Manjit who always wanted a child in the house. She had something to do with little children. What? We can only wait for enough time to find out more.
Will There Be A ‘Hush Hush’ Season 2?
Quite possibly, yes. There has been no closure in “Hush Hush” Season 1. The police could not even find Vinayak’s whereabouts. Shantanu will allow Geeta to continue her investigation into this case. The most interesting of all would be the ‘Hushweb’ because girl trafficking fails to become the most exciting turn of events. However, it is expected that the makers would do anything to establish a grand twist, just like they tried to put Manjit into the equation. A bad one, yes, but it wasn’t disastrous. It’s a not-so-good thriller for a one-time watch.
“Hush Hush” is an action thriller streaming on Amazon Prime.
