Jalsa

Year: 2022

Actors: Shefali Shah, Manav Kaul, Vidya Balan

Duration: 126 min

A hit and run of an 18 year old girl raises many questions only to realize that the truth is rarely pure and never simple.Maya Menon (Vidya Balan) is a successful, rich, hard hitting, truth telling and influential TV journalist, with high morals. She hosts a successful TV show "Face The Truth" and enjoys a celebrity status only desired by her competitors, peers and juniors alike. She lives with her son with Cerebral Palsy, Ayush (Surya Kasibhatla) and her mother Rukmini (Rohini Hattangadi), and its implied that she has a romantic relationship with her boss Amar Malhotra (Mohammed Iqbal Khan). She is at great terms with her ex-husband who looks happily married to his current Russian wife and has a baby boy with her. All is perfect until one night Maya falls asleep on the wheel while driving home late from work, and hits a young girl who suddenly comes in front of her pacing car out of nowhere. She stops, sees another bystander fleeing the scene and flees herself. CCTV camera captures the hit & run.Maya comes home deeply shaken. She discovers damage to her car and covers the car. Again caught on security cameras. Rukhsana (Shefali Shah), her son's caretaker and cook, had stayed at Maya's for the night, per Maya's request, as she was running late that night. Rukhsana loves Ayush like her own son. She sees Maya very upset, but ignores it. Rukhsana has a son Imaad (Shafeen Patel). Her husband Salim works at a studio, and earns rs 1800 per day.The next morning, the story starts to unravel. The young girl turns out to be Rukhsana's daughter Aliyah Mohammad (Kashish Rizwan). Rukhsana is unsure and embarrassed why was her 18 year old daughter out so late at night, and what was she doing in the neighborhood where the hit & run happened. When Maya finds out, she gets Aliyah moved to a private hospital.The police officer Prakash More (Shrikant Mohan Yadav), assigned to the case, discovers (from CCTV footage) his own indiscretion that took place at the same spot, an hour before the accident. Hence, he is motivated to not disclose the CCTV footage (the only proof of Maya's crime), and suppress the case for his own protection and well-being in light of his daughter's upcoming wedding.The guy Rizwan (Junaid Khan) fleeing the scene assumed to be the guy that Aliyah was seeing and she had gone out late at night to see him. He had tried to make physical advances at her, and the girl was running away from him. So he also chooses to stay silent for his own protection. Only later it is revealed that Aliyah was there to make videos to post on social media and get more followers. The girl had recently broke up with her boy friend who works at a mechanic's shop.Maya's driver who discovers the car damaged and a girl's earring stuck in the broken windshield figures out that Maya was the culprit but he also remains silent as he needs half a million from Maya to pay for his family's critical expenses. He turns over the evidence to Maya and asks for Rs 5 Lakhs as price to keep his mouth shut.Maya confesses her crime to her boss Amar, but he encourages her to stay silent, as he is protecting the news station (which is immensely successful due to Maya) as well as himself due to fear of his personal relationship with her coming to light.The journalist Rohini George (Vidhatri Bandi) pursuing the case, who discovers leads, happens to work for Maya, and respects her deeply. Rohini at first approaches Maya and seeks permission to pursue the case, as she feels that the police is trying to quash the case. Maya encourages her, which angers Amar, who says that this is real life and the investigation will lead to her. Rohini speaks to More, who says that there was no CCTV footage as the camera was damaged that night. She then meets Rukhsana at the hospital to find out about Aliyah's boyfriend. Rohini also needs her job and money due to domestic family pressures.As Rohini investigates, Amar starts distancing himself from Maya. More meets Salim and advises him to settle the case out of court. From Rohini, Rukhsana learns that Aliyah's boyfriend worked as a mechanic at a local garage. Rukhsana confronts him, but turns out Rohini was talking about Alam, who had broken up with Aliyah a few months ago. Rizwan worked at the same garage. Rohini then figures out that a nearby shop (where the accident took place), also had a CCTV camera and arranges to get hold of the footage of the relevant night. Rohini gets the footage and finds out that the car involved in the accident belonged to Maya herself. Rohini approaches More and says she has seen the footage, without revealing that she had only seen Maya and not More. More admits that that night he took a bribe from friends of a person who confronted More and his fellow cop Pradeep (Ghanshyam Lalsa) for urinating on the road. More is mortified that if the footage comes to light, he will be fired and his daughters wedding will be in jeopardy. More and Pradeep were blackmailing the son Raju of a local Municipal Corporator Ramnik Bhai, who had put up an illegal banner over the CCTV, for money, to pay to Rukhsana and her family. More and Pradeep ask for Rs 35 Lakhs and plan to offer Rs 15 Lakhs to Rukhsana. Ramnik refuses to pay more than Rs 10 Lakhs. More begs Rohini to not reveal the CCTV footage. Unknown to More, Rohini had recorded the entire conversation on her mobile.Rukhsana and Salim meet More, and Rukhsana wants Rs 25 Lakhs to settle the case. When More pushes back, Rukhsana says she will take advise from Maya. But Maya tells Rukhsana that she should not return to work till Aliyah is in hospital as she might infect Ayush from bacteria carried from the hospital. Rukhsana and Salim are under pressure from More to settle the case at Rs 10 Lakhs.Rohini was not sure what to do and approached Amar with the whole story. Amar bought her off with Rs 2.2 Lakhs. Meanwhile Alam finds Rizwan watching Aliyah's video and figures out the truth. He takes Rizwan to Rukhsana and tells her that it was Rizwan who was with Aliyah on the night of the accident. Rizwan admits the truth to Rukhsana and identifies Maya as the woman driving the car that hit Aliyah The next day Rukhsana returns to Maya's home, when she was at the office. Maya calls Rohini into her office and decides to record her confession to clear her conscience. Meanwhile Rukhsana takes Rukmini's permission to take Ayush to the beach. Ayush can only walk slowly with the help of a walker. She takes him out to an isolated pier and silently backs away, with Ayush surrounded by threatening waves. Rukmini finds a bag of cash at her house (the money More paid Rukhsana, which she assumed came from Maya).Rukmini calls Maya, who doesn't pick up as she was busy with Rohini. By the team Rukmini contacts Maya and she reaches the beach, Rukhsana is sitting their alone with Ayush's walker. But Ayush is alive. Despite everything, Rukhsana didn't have the courage to kill Ayush.

Genre: Action   Drama   Thriller