Dhootha (2023) Season 1 Ending Explained
Dhootha is a Telugu language mystery crime thriller starring Naga Chaitanya Akkineni, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Priya Bhavani Shanker and Prachie Desai in the lead roles. The show chronicles the life of Sagar Varma, a chief editor of a newspaper as he uncovers the truth behind mysterious murders of those around him.
What are the newspaper clippings about?
Sagar Varma first finds a newspaper clipping on the night of the event where he was announced as the Chief Editor for a popular newspaper. The clipping featured a crossword puzzle with a clue asking for his pet dog’s name. The clue mentions exact time, day, date and how his pet dog would die after Sagar’s car is hit by a truck and Sagar is stunned.
Just as predicted in the clue, the event takes place and his pet dog dies. Interestingly, the clue asked for a 6 letter answer but his dog was never named. They used to call him ‘Aye’ until they found a name.
The next day, Sagar’s daughter Anjali comes up to him and says they should name their pet dog as Hippopotamus. When written in Telugu, Hippopotamus has exactly six letters. Sagar is again surprised to see the answer fit well in the puzzle.
Soon he finds similar such newspaper clippings detailing the murders of those around him, including his daughter Anjali.
Who is pre-empting these events?
Sagar Varma enlists the help of the police and sets on a mission to find the culprit. One can understand the murders happening and people who would orchestrate them, but how can one explain the intimation of future events down to the exact second and manner of happening?
Sagar joins hands with the local police and asks them to investigate the truck driver hoping to find a clue. The police take the torture too far and the driver dies. DSP Kranthi suspects Sagar’s involvement and is hot on his trail. Sagar manages to let her off his trail but not for too long.
Sagar himself decides to get into investigating the mystery of those newspaper clippings. His search leads him to a ghostbuster who was contacted by a journalist a few months back. This journalist had investigated the case almost to its origin. Sagar continues the investigation and finds himself looking back to the 1960’s where the story actually begins.
A trusting and honest journalist, Satya Murthy was betrayed by his acquaintances. They took advantage of Satya Murthy’s reputation to commit crimes undetected and paint a false picture in public. They kill Satya Murthy to keep their secret hidden. They chain his body to the printing machine.
Thus begins a tale of misfortune on the acquaintances and those around them. It turns out that it is the ghost of Satya Murthy who is haunting all the corrupt journalists. The events are pre-empted by the ghost and they happen as planned. Satya Murthy’s ghost is taking a revenge on those who play with public’s trust and use it for their selfish benefit.
Is Priya innocent?
In the last two episodes, we see that the next target is Sagar’s wife Priya. She was also a journalist but she took a break because of her pregnancy. Sagar is surprised to find her as a target. His investigations tell him that the journalists killed themselves in order to stop the killings. He decides to take his own life. and sends a voice note to DSP Kranthi.
As he sends one to Priya, his phone runs out of battery. He searches for a charger, but comes across files documenting Priya’s corrupt actions. He attempts to puke the sleeping pills he had ingested but falls unconscious. He is taken to the hospital by one of the police patrol cars and is treated. He tells Kranthi about his findings regarding Priya. It is almost too late by the time Priya is rescued but she survives. She apologises for her wrongdoings to Sagar.
Who is Amrutha?
Amrutha is Sagar’s colleague. Her husband is in the merchant navy and he is away 10 months a year. What started as a romantic relationship between her and her husband turns to a toxic and abusive one as he begins to dictate her movements and also physically abuse her.
One night, Amrutha and Sagar are celebrating the success of their newspaper. Taken in the moment, they spend the night with each other. Amrutha soons finds out that she is pregnant. Her husband comes back earlier than expected and finds the pregnancy test. He hits Amrutha to the point where she has to be hospitalised.
When Sagar tells her that whatever happened between them was just a one night stand, Amrutha feels betrayed. Her pregnancy is terminated because of her injuries and she sends that aborted foetus to Priya, Sagar’s wife. This causes a rift between Sagar and Priya and they are separated.
What could have been different about Dhootha?
This angle of Sagar cheating on Priya and Amrutha sending a foetus to Priya could have been avoided. It would have been much more interesting to see Amrutha help Sagar investigate the mysterious murders and help Priya with her pregnancy during Sagar’s absence owing to the friendship they have.
Next, instead of it being a supernatural story, it would have been a delight and true brain candy for the mystery lovers if the murders were pre-empted by a living person instead of a ghost. Sure, the ghost angle did give a tasteful turn to the story but imagine if a person had a vendetta against Sagar Varma and they put their life into defining a perfect plan to ruin his personal and professional life. Instead of a ghost, there could be slow but steady psychological manipulation of those around Sagar to behave in a certain way on command.
The story was further stretched out by the ghost buster’s addition. These three additions could have been further avoided to make the story much more compact and even more engaging. Instead of eight, we would have have only six episodes. Pitting Sagar against the antagonist and having an epic battle of wits would have increased the thrill.
Do Sagar and Priya reunite?
In the finale episode, we see that Sagar finds out one of the acquaintances who betrayed Satya Murthy was Sagar’s grandfather. He decides to come clean about the matter then and the matter now at a conference he was scheduled to attend. He drags the politician Chakravarty and unveils his identity to the public.
Out of sheer anger and frustration, Sagar bludgeons Chakravarty to death. He is sentenced to prison. Priya visits him in prison with their newborn child. She says comforting words to him but it does not look like the two would be back together. Sagar did cheat on Priya and break her trust after all.