P.I. Meena, a mystery thriller directed by Debaloy Bhattacharya, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Cradling a story in the nooks and crannies of Kolkata, the series revolves around a young private investigator, Meenakshi Iyer, who has been trying to unravel the reasons behind a murder. In trying to dig up the truth, she faces many perils, making her stand at crossroads where she has to decide whether to continue with the investigation or not. Why was Meena so keen on finding out the murderers? Will she decide to continue with her investigations? Will she finally succeed? There are many questions that pop up, and these can only be resolved if we stick around till the 8th and final episode of P.I. Meena. The amazing acting skills of Tanya Maniktala, Parambrata Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, and others add a new flavor to P.I. Meena. Let us take a deep look into the world of Meena and understand her motives behind the investigation!
Spoilers Ahead
What Was Meena’s Motive Behind Investigating Partho’s Death?
Meena, a security consultant at Sundial, witnesses an accident on the road. She tries helping the young man by taking him to the hospital. Later, when she is summoned to the police station for interrogation, she meets the victim’s mother, Chandana Dey. She tells Meena that this was not just an accident; someone was trying to kill her son, and she requests that she investigate the case. Meena later receives the news of Partho’s death, and she goes to meet Chandana. She tells Meena that her son was a Ph.d. candidate in virology who had gone to Berlin to complete his studies. She is convinced that her son has been murdered and gives Meena all the possible information that she has. She tells her that the night before the accident, some man with a red bag had come to meet Partho, and most probably that had something to do with his death. The next morning, she gets the news that Chandana has committed suicide, as she was unable to accept her son’s death. A question, however, remains as to whether she committed suicide or had been killed by people who wanted to sabotage the investigation.
Meena is moved by the death of a helpless mother and decides to investigate Partho’s case. There are certain personal past traumas that also encourage her to take up the case. She used to have flashbacks of the car accident that her family had met with, in which she had lost her mother and her brother had slipped into a coma. She is seen visiting a care home, where she meets her brother Joy and decides to help Partho’s case. She must have seen a glimpse of her brother in Partho as he was lying helplessly on the road after the accident. She could relate to the trauma that family members undergo after a sudden death. Maybe these were the reasons why she took up the case, despite several attacks and threats to her own life.
What Was Dr. Andrew Rakhaw’s Real Identity?
Dr. Andrew Rakhaw was a general physician at the Littnong Hospital who had a secret identity. His identity is revealed by Banshu, his childhood friend, to Meena; his real name is Imay Pokhral. He used to live with his family in Littnong as a kid, and the greed of his father made them outcasts. His father tried setting up an industry in Littnong, telling people that the industry would provide them employment and change their lives. Little did they know about the contents of the barrels that the company was dealing with. When there was a sudden flood in Littnong, all the barrels were swept away, and there was a radioactive leak in the river, causing many to fall severely sick. The villagers were hunting the Pokhral family, and they had to flee. However, Imay could never forget his village and came back there as a doctor to help manage the problem that his father had inflicted on two generations. However, people in the village were unaware of his real identity.
Meena had gone to meet Andrew Rakhaw in Littnong because she thought he could help her solve Partho’s murder, as he was supposed to come and meet him. Meena manages to collect the slide of the virus from Andrew that Partho was supposed to collect. Andrew is unable to provide her with any detailed information about the type of virus that was present in the slide. He says that the sample was collected from a patient in Littnong when a mysterious virus outbreak occurred there. She comes back to Kolkata and gets it tested in a pathology lab, but to no avail. The virus could not be identified by the lab either.
What Were The Secrets Behind The Virus Outbreak In Littnong?
There was a mysterious virus outbreak in Littnong, which was being treated by Dr. Andrew. Mrs. Chopra, the owner of a private hospital in Littnong, says that the laboratory has to be burned down so that there is no further spread of the virus. Later, it is seen that there is a mysterious fire in the laboratory of the hospital. Meanwhile, Meena has been trying her best to find out the reasons behind Partho’s death. Meena searches for the research papers written by Partho. She finds out that he has mentioned the Big Pharma company and their association with the viruses. She tries cracking the password on Partho’s phone and tries contacting Omar, Partho’s friend in Berlin. He recommends she talk to Dr. Arsian and says that Partho had told him about a virus outbreak in India, but he was not sure about it. Later, Omar informs Meena that he was unable to contact Dr. Arsian as he was missing.
Later in P.I. Meena, we find out that Mrs. Chopra was involved in virus testing at a pig farm in Littnong. The virus had killed 600 pigs on the farm, and it was eventually burned down. The virus had been transferred from pigs to humans, resulting in 13 deaths. It is revealed that Dr. Andrew had no hand in the virus outbreak. The plan for covering up the factor of the virus outbreak and its use as a tool of bio-terror by some bigger organization was chalked by Mrs. Chopra. She also tries to threaten Dr. Andrew to join her, or she will harm his father and expose his real identity to the villagers. Eventually, when she understands that Dr. Andrew could be a threat to her, she tries killing him and clearing her own path.
What Were Meena’s Conspiracy Theories?
Meena tries linking several possibilities in her head and comes up with different conspiracy theories to resolve the case. She goes to meet Dr. Basu, Partho’s professor, to seek more information about his murder. She is told that Partho was working on the Antarctic Giant Virus. She tells Dr. Basu that it was probable that Partho had gotten sensitive information about Big Pharma’s interest in viruses and their tests on humans, which had gotten him killed. Dr. Basu tells her that the Council of Disease Control in Atlanta has indeed been testing dormant viruses on humans, which is very private information of the government.
On further investigation, Meena learns that on the morning of his death, Partho had talked to Rini. She goes to Rini’s house and finds out that Partho bought her a very expensive diamond bracelet. She assumes that the information about the virus that Partho had found was sold by him to some terrorist group. She tells Subho and Annie that Partho and Dr. Arsian found the Giant Antarctic virus, and they knew when the glaciers would melt, the dormant viruses would come to life, which was a business worth a lot of money. Since the glaciers would take a lot of years to melt, they had activated the virus in a lab in Berlin, which was brought by Partho to Kolkata. After putting her conspiracy theory on the dark web, Meena receives a response from Dr. Arsian. He says that he and Partho sold the virus to Tirakh, a new bio-terror group. He also tells her that someone in Kolkata has still been supporting Tirakh. He asks her to tell the world how ashamed he is and kills himself.
What Was Tridib Up To?
From the very beginning of P.I. Meena, we see Tridib, an officer of the intelligence force, trying to sabotage Partho’s murder investigation. He does not want a post-mortem to be conducted on Partho and orders an early release of the body. He tries disrupting the investigations of Meena and warns her a lot of times to stay away from the case. He interrogates Meena’s office colleagues about her whereabouts and threatens them. We find a connection between Tridib and Dr. Nair, as they are both alumni of the Indian Virology Institute (IVI). He manipulates Dr. Nair into not providing Meena with the correct information on the virus and asks him to mislead her. His motive to sabotage the case is not clear to us. It is possible that he was an ally to Tirakh and wanted to support their cause. However, he is later killed, and the identity of his murderer is never revealed. It is possible that he could have been murdered by the members of Tirakh upon completion of his job. There is also a possibility that he could have blackmailed someone from Tirakh for money, leading to his murder.
What Was Dr. Nair’s Motive?
Meena had gone to Tapish Projects Pig Farm in Barasat as she had heard about another virus outbreak there. She learns that the farm has been burned to ashes and rushes there to collect evidence when she is told off by Tridib. She learns that Gobindo Saha, the farm owner, is also sick and is admitted to the hospital. She meets Dr. Biswas, the one treating Gobindo, and learns that he will be busy in a meeting discussing the virus outbreak in Littnong and the similarity of it to the Kolkata outbreak. She later learns that Dr. Biswas has also been infected by the virus and takes him to Dr. Nair for a test. Nair runs the test and finds out that the virus that had infected Dr. Biswas while he was treating others in Barasat Hospital was indeed the Atlantic Giant Virus. He hides this information from Meena and gives out all the information about the tests to Tridib. In exchange for the information, Dr. Nair wanted Tridib to restore his doctor’s license, which had been seized because of an illegal experiment with drugs on people, resulting in their deaths.
What Was Subho Seeking?
Subho, also known as the fraud lawyer for his failed career in law, has a clear motive from the very beginning of P.I. Meena. He wanted to get involved in politics by supporting the opposition party and finding information about the misdeeds of the minister of the ruling party. Just as he reports the wrongdoings of the minister for being closely associated with the rebels, he is told off by the opposition minister. He says that the minister’s association with the rebels would be bad for the state, and just then he is told that he knows nothing of politics. Subho thinks that the indifference of the opposition minister is fishy and goes to the dark web to find out more information on the matter. He finds out that the opposition minister had become the chairman of the Water Commission in exchange for the evidence that Subho had collected against the ruling party. Subho, upon understanding that he had been tricked and his ticket to the next election was gone, starts collecting evidence against the ruling party and the opposition minister from the dark web. He plans on joining the new party that has been formed recently. Subho was also very clear in his support for Meena in anything that she did. He was always there for her, despite the life threats that associating with her would get him. He was following her all around like a love-sick puppy and was also involved in helping her with the case all throughout the first episode.
Why Did Dr. Basu Kill Partho?
Meena goes to Annapurna Ghat to meet Dr. Rakhaw, as he had come to Kolkata just to meet her and discuss the virus outbreak. He tells her that Mrs. Chopra, Tridib, and Partho were all aware of the virus outbreak that was about to happen. Later, an attack happens on them, leaving her injured and killing Dr. Andrew. The virus strain was finally recognized by the government as the V1612 strain that was spreading through pigs. The government takes up safety policies to keep citizens safe. Meanwhile, Meena’s quest to delve deep into the riddle is brought out. She finds out that on the morning of Partho’s death, he had gone to meet someone after meeting Rini. She finds out that he visited Dr. Rathindra Basu. She also found that he was also an IVI graduate associated with a secret bio-weapon experiment in Russia.
Meena visits Dr. Basu’s house and notices his red bag, which convinces her that he was Partho’s murderer. She confronts Dr. Basu about his deeds and his association with Tirakh, and he tells her that he had to kill Partho because he had become a threat to the organization. He had warned Partho to stay out of the affairs of the organization after having sold the information. But after the virus killed 13 people in Littnong, he was regretting his decision and wanted to go and meet Dr. Andrew to let him know about the virus strain. Just as he left Dr. Basu’s house, he was killed on the road, making it look like an accident. After his confession, Dr. Basu tries attacking Meena by jabbing an euthanizing injection into her. She, however, manages to dodge the attack, injecting Dr. Basu with it and killing him.
Final Thoughts
Despite having a strong plot, the sub-plots could not be woven properly to cover all the loopholes in the series. The plot could have been used beautifully to carve it into a more solid narrative. Avoiding multiple subplots could have helped the director better focus on the main plot, avoiding confusion among the audience. I was very hopeful for a very solid ending, but the motives of the characters were not bang on. The motives were weak and loosely knit. So many questions in the series have not been answered! Why was Tridib murdered? Who was the leader of the new party that Subho wanted to join? What was Tirakh’s actual motive? The motive of Dr. Basu’s work for Tirakh was also not very clear. The ending of the series was so abrupt! The tension has, however, been well built up in the first seven episodes of P.I. Meena. We expect that something out of the box will happen in the final episode, but the weak plot spills water on all our hopes. This mystery-thriller honestly deserved better twists in its plot. However, we can expect a second season of the series to help resolve all our doubts. The excellent acting skills of the actors have somewhat managed to pull the subplots of the series together.
