Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Siddharth P. Malhotra, Netflix’s ‘Ikka‘ steps into the mind and life of Arjun Mehra, a famous attorney who is known for not having lost a single case in recent memory. While he is generally heralded as a people’s lawyer, a series of unfortunate events leaves him with no choice but to defend a murder suspect, one he has a personal history with. Shouryamann Gaur comes from a family that has both money and political power, but it is neither of those reasons that drives Arjun to pick up the case. The real reason is a deeply emotional one, and it forces him to wrestle with his conscience as he fights a legal battle with a grieving family. By the end of this Hindi-language legal thriller movie, however, the truth eventually triumphs. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Ikka Plot Synopsis
‘Ikka’ begins with celebrity defense lawyer Arjun Mehra, aka Ikka, conducting a talk where he emphasizes the value of fairness and how no amount of wealth or power can put someone up on a pedestal in the eyes of the law. Just then, he learns that his daughter, Samaira, has begun uncontrollably bleeding in the middle of a swimming competition. Though the doctors believe that this isn’t all that unusual for athletes, there are still a few tests to be made. In the meantime, Arjun learns that the case of Shouryamann Gaur, son of a leading industrialist and MLA, Harshvardhan Gaur, has been picking up steam as of late. Shouryamann is accused of the attempted murder of Soma Mittal, a girl he met at a bar. While Harshvardhan, an old client of Arjun’s firm, wants him to defend the case, Arjun refuses, stating that he instinctively feels that Shouryamann isn’t innocent.
The following day, Arjun and his wife, Avantika, learn that Samaira has Leukemia, but because it has been diagnosed at an early stage, it is still fairly treatable via a stem cell treatment. The catch, however, is that her biological parent is not Arjun, but actually Shouryamann, Avantika’s ex-partner. We then learn that Shouryamann used to be a lawyer in the past, and worked under Arjun before getting disbarred. While this explains why their relationship has remained so sour, it also complicates things going forward. Arjun is left with no choice but to beg Shouryamann to donate his stem cells, and in return, he is forced to become the Gaurs’ defense lawyer. In doing so, he is to face Madhura Banerjee, an up-and-coming prosecutor who has taken Soma’s case when no one else would.
Though Madhura is able to gather plenty of evidence incriminating Shouryamann, Arjun uses his wit and resourcefulness to thwart every single one of them. However, every time he gets close to wrapping up the case, Madhura is able to procure one more piece of evidence that resets the game. Things seem to get truly out of hand when a new witness comes to the stand, claiming that he saw Shouryamann near the site of the murder at about 4 in the morning. However, around the same time, Arjun learns that Shouryamann’s wife, Gauri, called the police at around 1 a.m., after being attacked by him. Using this evidence and the fact that Gauri wants to see her husband behind bars, he sets up a trap to bait Madhura into using Gauri’s false testimony before unleashing the police logs and closing the case in Shouryamann’s favor. However, just when the latter’s victory seems assured, Arjun reveals that he still has one last trick up his sleeve.
Ikka Ending: Did Shouryamann Kill Soma? Is He Arrested?
‘Ikka’ ends with the startling revelation that Shouryamann did indeed kill Soma Mittal, and that Arjun’s real plan this entire time has been to prove his guilt at the last minute. After the court finds Shouryamann innocent, he lowers his guard completely, inviting Arjun to a party as if they are now allies. This entire time, however, Arjun seems to have his ace lying in wait, and it finally comes to play when the two of them stand face-to-face once again. In order to prove Shouryamann’s guilt, Arjun must beat the evidence he himself cultivated, that being the phone call Gauri made to the police at 1 a.m. on the night of the murder. Though it almost makes it look like Shouryamann is telling the truth, the devil lies in the details.
In the phone call, the person calling out Gauri’s name uses a very different pronunciation from Shouryamann’s, and things don’t click until Arjun hears Chatur, the Gaurs’ family assistant, repeat that exact pronunciation in a different conversation. In reality, Shouryamann really didn’t make it back home that night until 4 a.m., and instead attempted to coerce and sexually assault Soma in his car. When she resisted, he used his car key to strike, accidentally slashing her jugular veins and causing her eventual death. However, the moment he dropped the body out of the car, and the moment he was observed by a neighbor upstairs, actually take place in two different timeframes, and therein lies the mystery of this murder.
Shouryamann initially fled the scene after committing the murder, but later realized that he needed an alibi to truly mask his presence from the crime scene. For that, he later returned to the block, got out of his car, and used the phone of an unhoused person on the street to call Gauri and orchestrate the fake phone call. It is at this moment that Shouryamann was observed by two people: the neighbor upstairs and the person whose phone he used. Later, when the case becomes too well-known, Shouryamann decides to get the latter witness killed at Chatur’s hands. However, Arjun, having figured out the entire truth, anticipates this course of action and catches Chatur in the act. The witness lives, giving the police and Madhura all the information they need to solve the case and get Shouryamann behind bars for good.
Why Did Gauri Lie? Is She an Accomplice?
Though we are initially led to believe that Gauri is one of the survivors of Shouryamann’s abuse, reality turns out to be a lot more twisted. In reality, Gauri has been in on the plan this entire time and was tasked with crafting a fake narrative solely to play on Arjun’s emotions. When she frames Shouryamann as a monster in her life, Arjun naturally begins to think of her as someone who understands the reality of things, and thus, the plan to use her own stance against her begins to take shape. However, all of this is actually a part of a sequence devised by Shouryamann, who banks on Arjun to attempt to manipulate Madhura into making Gauri her star witness. In line with that, Gauri then intentionally crafts a fake story, all so that Arjun can deliver the final blow and nullify the prosecution’s entire case.
In many ways, Shouryamann believes that Gauri will be the proverbial ace in Arjun’s plan, but what he fails to anticipate is the actual truth being discovered. Though we don’t see Gauri get arrested just yet, it is very unlikely that she will be booked for trying to mislead the court and plant false evidence. What is truly potent about this sequence, however, is the look Madhura gives Gauri at the end, which is a realization of being betrayed on not just one but two levels. It is very likely that Gauri still is acting as a means of self-preservation in the face of an abusive partner like Shouryamann, but for her to use Soma’s fate as a manipulation tactic reveals just how twisted and disconnected from reality her mind and actions have become.
Does Samaira Live or Die? Does She Recover From Cancer?
Arjun’s legal stunt at the end of ‘Ikka’ is only made possible because he receives the insurance he’s been craving this entire time: the safety of his daughter. Every morbid move he makes to save a guilty man from prison is solely in order to get Samaira the treatment she needs. By the end of the trials, Shouryamann feels confident enough to go through with the stem cell treatment and save Samaira’s life. What he doesn’t realize, though, is that after this, he no longer has any power over Arjun. Even without the last-minute evidence, Arjun can still support the case going to another appeal. With the evidence in hand, though, Arjun has nothing left to fear and makes sure that he is redeemed by proving Shouryamann’s guilt when no one else could.
Though we don’t get a good look at the aftermath of Shouryamann’s arrest, it is implied that Samaira is making a steady recovery and will likely be back at her peak fitness very soon. Her dream has always been to become a sportsperson, and while her health condition initially made things more challenging, things are looking up at last. Though Arjun makes one too many moral sacrifices in his attempt to help Samaira live, in the end, he doesn’t discard the values that have made him a good lawyer, either. The thing that Samaira is most proud of isn’t necessarily her sports prowess, but the fact that her parents have a golden resolve and have always used it to help others. In the end, Soma Mittal’s case turns out to be no different, as despite siding with the perpetrator at first, Arjun manages to recalibrate himself on the side of justice.
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