Chup Plot Synopsis
The 2022 psychological thriller Chup follows the story of a psychopath who is hell-bent on murdering critics that give movies unfavourable reviews without investing enough time to understand the motive of the filmmaker.
Inspector Mathur finds the bodies of popular critics with a star rating on their respective foreheads. After learning that these critics were killed and rated as per their last review of movies, he asks the Critics’ Association to stop reviewing movies negatively for a while. Now as a new movie is released, he asks the critics to write only positive reviews for the release.
How does Inspector Mathur find the motive behind the murders?
Despite Inspector Arvind Mathur’s insistence, Kartik, a film critic, chooses to write an honest review giving the movie a 1.5-star rating. The cops are sure that the psychopath will attack Kartik so Arvind and his team gather together to give him special protection waiting for the killer to arrive.
After waiting for a long time, Arvind gets a call from his subordinate informing him that another critic had been murdered and in Kartik’s stead.
Arvind wonders why the k m,iller chose to steer away from his regular modus operandi of killing reviewers who trash movies. The cops figure out that the psychopath only kills critics that give negative reviews to films without proper research. In this case, the killer attacked a critic that gave unnecessarily good reviews to a movie that was particularly bad.
Mathur also discovers that the psychopath kills these critics based on the plot of their reviews. If the critic gives the killer a good murder storyline, the psychopath chooses to murder that critic and in turn spares other critics that give equally critical reviews.
Who is Dr Zenobia? How does she help Inspector Mathur?
Together with the help of a renowned psychologist, Dr Zenobia, Arvind Mathur decodes that the psychopath is a troubled artist who dislikes the way in which movies are trashed by critics. She explains that the killer is extremely depressed and a way to channel his pain is by causing pain to others.
Dr Zenobia and Arvind together ask Kartik to help by making a list of all the filmmakers of recent times whose last movies received extremely poor reviews. Their aim is to find filmmakers who stopped making movies due to the negative reviews their films got over recent years.
How is Nila linked to the case?
Kartik asks Nila, an aspiring critic, to work on the article with him and the two are able to make a list of filmmakers whose last work was met with negative reviews. Meanwhile, Nila and Danny have gotten closer and she is suspicious that Danny is the killer who is murdering critics, left and right.
Nila starts doubting Danny when she spots film roll boxes in his house but he diffuses the situation by claiming that they were intended as a surprise for her. The two plan on meeting for a date that Thursday. Meanwhile, since Arvind wants to track the killer down, he urges some critics to purposely write incorrect reviews about a film that is to be released that week.
Since most of the critics are worried about their lives, Arvind asks Nila to volunteer since she is an aspiring film critic who is always kept on the sidelines due to her lack of experience. Nila initially agrees to do so, thinking that she will be able to start her journey as a critic and watches the movie.
Nila loved the movie and wants to give it a four-star rating but Mathur and Zenobia ask her to write a negative review for the movie asking her to give it a dramatic storyline good enough to invite the killer to murder. On the other hand, Danny is waiting for Nila to show up considering it was the night of their date but they are not able to connect.
Nila was initially excited about writing the review but soon comes to her senses about what she is going to do. She gets worried but her mother tries to get her to be courageous and do the needful to find the killer on the loose.
What does Danny do to Nila?
Once she writes an incorrect review, Inspector Mathur and his police team gather at her house, anticipating the killer to attack any time the following day. Danny watches the movie and really enjoys it. He waits for Nila to call after she ghosted him on the night of their date.
When he is about to take a call from Nila, he gets notified about the movie reviews for the film he just watched. He puts Nila’s texts/calls on hold and reads the reviews. He eventually comes down to a bad review of the movie that had an amazing storyline for him to bring to life. Danny is shocked to see that it was Nila who wrote the review, claiming it was so bad it “split her brain into 1000 pieces”.
Ready to do just that, Danny sets off to see Nila and tries visiting her house. Once there, Nila suddenly gets overwhelmed and asks Arvind to let her meet her mother. When she learns that Danny was here to meet her, she forces the inspector to let her boyfriend stay.
After convincing Arvind, Danny tries to calm Nila down and takes her to the bedroom. Inside, behind closed doors, Danny suffocates Nila using his usual plastic wrap method and throws her out of the window without the cops noticing a thing.
He makes a makeshift Nila out of pillows and covers it with a blanket to make it seem as if she were sleeping. Danny talks to Arvind outside the room and frustrates the inspector into kicking him out of the house. After leaving, Danny walks to the neighbouring building to collect Nila’s body and takes her to a secluded location where he ties her to a chair.
Arvind notices something off with Nila and Danny’s interaction and his team alerts him by saying that Danny has left his bicycle behind. Arvind puts two and two together and notices that Nila is not in the room. He jumps out of the window too in order to gauge where Danny may have dropped her. Arvind gets his leg injured in the process and rushes to find Nila.
What is the story behind Danny’s revenge?
Once he has captured her, Danny discusses the movie review with Nila. She claims that she was forced to give it a bad review just because they were looking for the killer. Danny states that bashing a work of art just for the sake of it is an injustice to any artist and claims that her 1-star rating for the movie would have been valid had she researched the movie a little.
Danny claims that the movie was a splitting copy of another foreign film and it wasn’t a novel plot, meaning the artist had stolen someone’s work. While he is about to kill Nila as per his plan, Arvind finds the two in mid-conversation and somehow saves Nila while shooting Danny and injuring him.
After that, Nila is taken to the hospital and Danny into police custody where his house is searched for evidence to pin him to the crimes. The cops find Danny’s biographical movie that was trashed by critics and they watch it along with Nila who is recovering from her injuries.
Who is Sebastian Gomes?
The film narrates the story of a young boy who grows up in a violent home where his father beats up his mother. When the boy intervenes trying to save his mother, the father ties the boy up and throws him into the basement. Out of a small window in the basement, the boy watches the old films that their neighbour watches.
The boy falls in love with filmmaking and grows older to fall in love with films. He himself also becomes violent and is also able to control his father whenever he tries to assault his mother. One day, his father kills their dog named Danny. As the child grows older, he comes to hate his father and as soon as he died, the boy finally buries his dead dog from years ago.
The boy is an adult now and wants to be a filmmaker. He works on his autobiographical movie and releases it as Sebastian Gomes. However, the movie is trashed by critics and becomes a huge failure in an instant. Nila weeps after seeing the tragic story of Danny who is the failed filmmaker, Sebastian Gomes.
What happens to Danny at the end of Chup?
While it is not clear where Danny is at the end of the movie, it is shown that he is in solitary confinement in what looks like a prison. He still hears the voices in his head. Danny gets his meal for the day wrapped in newspaper. He reads the news headline that states a renowned film critic had passed away due to Covid.
Danny starts rejoicing before the other voice in his head asks him to stop and be considerate. The movie ends with Danny smiling to himself as one of Guru Dutt’s old songs plays in the background.
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