Maut Ka Chakravyuh, Part II
Scene 1
The episode begins where the previous one ended. We see the team searching in the rubble of the collapsed building for casualties and survivors (truly, hats off to Sachin sir in particular for working no less harder than the fit and whole cops, despite being injured so badly himself 👏 👏). Sachin sir eventually spots Daya sir in the rubble and the worried team manages to get him out, but he's immobile and not breathing. Dr. Salunkhe examines him and says that one of his ribs is broken and it has led to his pneumothorax being filled with air, due to which he's unable to breathe. ACP sir is extremely concerned too and requests him to do something. Salunkhe sir performs some procedure and Daya sir slowly starts to regain consciousness soon; he says Daya sir will be fine now. ACP sir is greatly relieved and praises him. Daya sir mutters that there was a dead body in that safe, and asks for Abhijeet sir. ACP sir says they'll deal with the safe soon, and Abhijeet sir is fine. He orders for Daya sir to be taken to the hospital. Two men take him away on a stretcher.
Scene 2
We see our duo being patched up in a tent by Tarika and Salunkhe sir, and refusing to be taken to the hospital. Both doctors desperately try to convince them, explaining how Abhijeet sir's shoulder is dislocated and Daya sir suffered a sprain to the leg in addition to his broken rib and both of them need rest, but the duo are adamant that they must go and help the victims of the building collapse. Daya sir asks Salunkhe sir to treat them right there as they're not going to the hospital at any cost. Salunkhe sir asks him to be taken into the ambulance.
Scene 3
We see Daya sir in the ambulance with his leg patched up. Pankaj comes there and delivers a message from Salunkhe sir that he is to be taken to the hospital immediately, as his injuries can be properly treated only there and staying back might worsen his condition. Daya sir eventually loses his cool and knocks Pankaj out of the ambulance 😉 😈 who scurries off to Salunkhe sir.
Scene 4
In the tent, Abhijeet sir's arm/shoulder is put in a sling and he walks off impatiently. Pankaj rushes in screaming for a painkiller and explaining what happened. Salunkhe sir walks out to try to convince the duo yet again.
Scene 5
In the kidnappers' den, one of the baddies enters and finds Sanjana's chair empty. Alarmed, he draws his gun and starts to scan the place, shouting her name and warning her to surrender. Sanjana ambushes him from behind with a syringe, and once he's down, runs away.
Scene 6
We see ACP sir, Sachin sir, Purvi and others looking inside the safe which the duo had opened, which contains the dead body of the bald man with moustache we had seen talking to Sanjana in the previous episode. Sachin sir wonders who he is and why the killer decided to hide his body in a safe. Shreya enters with the builder who had gotten the building constructed. ACP sir gets angry at him for endangering people's lives by constructing the cheap quality building. The builder insists he had built it properly, and his assistant adds that they have a certificate from the development authority. ACP sir is unconvinced, and the dead body is taken away. The injured duo turn up and say they're fine; ACP sir is concerned and gets irritated. The builder says he had sold the building via a broker to one Ocean Enterprises 6 months ago. Apparently they never met that company's owner or director.
Meanwhile, Mayur and Vansh while removing more rubble find a hidden tunnel under there. The team examines it and the builder says this tunnel may have weakened the building's foundations. Daya sir says the bad guys may have caused an explosion in there and destroyed the building. Purvi wonders what the actual purpose of the tunnel is. Abhijeet sir says the Ocean company is a fraud and there's something lethal going inside there. He and Daya sir decide to go inside and check what's happening. ACP sir tries his best to stop them, but they insist and finally convince him, and go inside. (Loved ACP sir's concern here. 👏 👏)
Scene 7
ACP sir, Sachin sir, Nikhil and others are seen removing more rubble, and they find a critically injured man there. Sachin sir recognizes him as Ajay, whom we had seen in the previous episode taking a girl hostage and finally being convinced to tell them the truth about whatever was going on there, before the collapse. Salunkhe sir arrives to check him up. ACP sir insists to have him hospitalized as they need him alive, but Salunkhe sir says his wounds are superficial and he'll be fine. ACP sir remains concerned. Ajay mumbles "JP" and goes still; Salunkhe sir is shocked to see that he's dead. ACP sir is disturbed and says whatever information he could've told them, is now gone. Salunkhe sir asks for the body to be taken to their tent.
Scene 8
We see out duo and Shreya traversing through the tunnel. They find wiring in the walls up ahead; Abhijeet sir construes there was a once functional system of lighting here as well. He notices the walls up ahead are moist, indicating that the tunnel is likely connected to a sewer system or the sea. They continue to explore the place carefully.
Scene 9
Overhead, the rescue work continues and the team and workers continue to remove several dead bodies and victims from under the ruble. Salunkhe sir is seen in his tent with Ajay's corpse. He and Dr. Tarika find injection marks on Ajay's forearm and neck.
Scene 10
Inside the tunnel, the duo and Shreya come across a fork and decide to take the larger path. Shreya points out that they might lose their way while returning. Daya sir scratches a mark on one of the walls as an indicator.
Scene 11
In the tent, Dr. Salunkhe calls ACP sir and the team and informs them that Ajay has been killed not due to wounds but a lethal poison known as Vertin. Dr. Tarika says the poison acts within 15 minutes and thus Ajay had been injected only a while ago. Jayawanti says he was murdered to prevent him from telling whatever he wanted to the CID. ACP sir wonders how the killer managed to do it in their presence. Freddy sir says nobody entered the area except the cops, hospital staff and rescue workers. ACP sir calls the rescue workers and notices that there are only five of them there now whereas a sixth, robust fella he had seen is now missing. None of them knows about him, and ACP sir construes that he was an assassin in disguise, to kill Ajay. Nikhil says fifteen minutes is sufficient time for him to have gotten away. ACP sir asks the cops to spread out and look for him still.
Scene 12
Inside the tunnel, the duo and Shreya start experiencing symptoms of asphyxia. They hear gushing sounds and suddenly the entire tunnel up ahead is flooded with turbulent water. The cops are barely able to hold themselves when a second, more powerful torrent of water comes along and Abhijeet sir is swept away by it. An unknown amount of time passes and we see Daya sir and Shreya slowly regaining consciousness in the flooded tunnel. They desperately search for Abhijeet sir but he's nowhere to be found.
Scene 13
Freddy sir, Jayawanti, Pankaj and Nikhil enquire at a stall near the accident site whose owner says he saw the phony rescue worker moving towards a nearby alley. The cops go there and Pankaj finds the man's uniform ditched in a trash can. They go back and ask the stall guy if he saw this man emerge from the alley in different clothes. He doesn't recall but does mention that a red motorbike had been standing there and after the man entered the alley, he heard the vehicle driving off. He doesn't remember its number. Jayawanti says they'll find out themselves, and they leave.
Scene 14
We see Abhijeet sir slowly, painfully regaining consciousness in a dark part of the tunnel, covered in blood, mud and slime. He finds human bones nearby. He slowly gets up, retrieves his lamp and starts exploring the length of the tunnel, looking for a way out. He hears whimpering sounds coming from up ahead and eventually comes across a man lying on the ground, covered in muck and in an equally dreadful condition. He begs not to be killed. Abhijeet sir identifies himself and assures that he's safe. The man says he's not eaten for two days as the men would murder him if he went outside. Abhijeet sir tries to ask for details, but the man is clearly in shock and keeps repeating the same thing over. He helps him to his feet and they start moving off, Abhijeet sir calling out for Daya sir.
Scene 15
We see ACP sir, Salunkhe sir, Freddy sir, Dr. Tarika, Pankaj, Nikhil and Jayawanti in the tent with the dead body found in the safe. Dr. Salunkhe points out that one of the man's bullet wounds came from a powerful rifle fired at a distance behind, which pierced through his chest. The other bullet - the seemingly fatal one - was fired at point blank range on the left of his chest. There are also several bruises and scratches on the body, indicating the victim was badly tortured prior to the murder. The cops say this man obviously possessed something that the killer either wanted or feared. ACP sir searches his expensive clothing and feels something inside his shirt collar. Dr. Salunkhe extracts a small pen drive from it and ACP sir says this was the object he was killed for.
Scene 16
We see Sanjana moving alone across a road, afraid that the abductors might've found out about her escape. She tries to stop several cars, finally succeeds and convinces the man to let her make a call. She calls her brother Sameer and to her shock, the phone is answered by one of the kidnappers who says they kidnapped him because she ran away. They let her talk to Sameer and she hears them hitting him. The kidnapper tells her to come to JP Road with the briefcase if she wants to see him alive, and warns her not to inform the police, before disconnecting. Sanjana starts crying out of desperation. The car driver curtly asks for his phone and drives off.
Scene 17
In the tent, the cops check the contents of the pen drive which turn out to be pics of several lethal weapons in crates, in what looks like a godown. ACP sir concludes that the so-called Ocean company was involved in arms smuggling. Jayawanti says that the murdered man apparently found out about this crooked business and discreetly took photos of all those weapons as evidence, and thus got murdered. ACP sir remembers Ajay mumbling "JP" before dying and says that it could refer to the JP industrial area which contains some abandoned godowns and warehouses.
Scene 18
We see Abhijeet sir moving through the tunnel with the man he found, Ramu. The latter says that six months ago, he came to the city with a friend after hearing about a well-paying job. Both of them were then made to join several other workers in digging this tunnel, many of whom died due to the hostile conditions there. He says boxes used to be moved in and out of the tunnel, and there was a place given to them to sleep there, but he lost his way. Abhijeet sir encourages him and says they'll make it out safely. Suddenly, the entire place shakes and the roof of the tunnel starts to cave in. The two men struggle to avoid the falling rocks and maintain their balance while the path up ahead is completely blocked by the collapsed boulders. Ramu falls down and begs for help. Abhijeet sir tries to reassure him and find a way out, but the tunnel is now a mess of shaking floors, falling debris and flying dust. He collapses onto the ground and the episode ends with a shot of the road hundreds of feet above the tunnel, the calmly moving traffic oblivious to the two lives in peril under them.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Maut Ka Chakravyuh, Part III
Scene 1
We see Daya sir and Shreya moving through the tunnel with some rescue workers (goodness knows how they got there), worried about Abhijeet sir and wondering where he is. Suddenly there's a sound like an explosion up ahead, and they rush to investigate.
Scene 2
ACP sir, Pankaj and Nikhil enter a dark warehouse with guns drawn and find the chair where Sanjana had been tied up. Pankaj finds a crate full of rifles. Suddenly, hidden thugs open fire on them. The cops engage them in a heavy fight and wipe the floors with their rear. ACP sir captures one of them who turns out to be the phony rescue worker, revealed to be a hitman named Rajesh. Rajesh defies them and refuses to tell where Sanjana is. ACP sir calmly fires his gun over Rajesh's ear, half deafening him and threatens to blow his brains out if he doesn't do as told.
Scene 3
We see Abhijeet sir desperately trying to move aside the boulders blocking their path, but they're too heavy and numerous. He nevertheless continues to persevere despite his condition and injuries. Ramu lies helpless and in a depressed delirium, remembering his wife and children, fond memories of them. He cries that he'll never be able to go back to them, never be able to fulfill their dreams. Abhijeet sir does his best to console him and tells him to keep the hope, but Ramu's breath gets heavy and soon he breathes his last. Abhijeet sir is greatly affected seeing this and looks around for any way to get out. Desperate, he settles down thinking of Daya sir and ACP sir. (As always, Aditya sir's acting was phenomenal here. You could see him torn between the horror and pain of what he just witnessed, and an unquenchable thirst to survive and reunite with his loved ones. 👏 👏)
Scene 4
Sanjana drives up to the JP road with the briefcase as asked, and meets the two kidnappers there. They get the bound and gagged Sameer out of their car's trunk and send him over to Sanjana after taking the briefcase, and then prepare to shoot them to cover their tracks. At this point the CID car turns up and ACP sir shoots out of the window to disarm the thugs. Both of them flee and are pursued by Nikhil and Pankaj. ACP sir ensures that Sanjana and Sameer are safe, and then retrieves the fallen briefcase which Sanjana says her boss Sikandar had asked to give to him. However, she doesn't know how to open it. Nikhil and Pankaj catch the two thugs and bring them forward. They say they never saw their boss - he contacts them via an unknown number and had asked them to kill Sanjana and Sameer and bring the briefcase to him. ACP sir asks for them to be taken away and warns Sanjana and Sameer to be alert.
Scene 5
We see Abhijeet sir lying in the tunnel near Ramu's corpse. Daya sir and Shreya arrive and Abhijeet sir greets them happily. After a while, they're gone and he realizes it was just a delusion. The tunnel starts crumbling again and he lies in the darkness feeling that he may never see Daya sir again. 😭
Scene 6
In the CID car, Nikhil breaks open the briefcase and finds inside the photo of a guy in tie marked "CT 2333". Pankaj wonders if this is a ploy to distract them; ACP sir says it can't be so as Sikander was murdered for this suitcase. He asks Nikhil to produce copies of this photo and send it over to all their informers and police stations.
Scene 7
We see the bus of one CT travels driving up to a barren area and the man with tie and glasses from the photo disembarks among the crowd. He's apparently due to a function at some auditorium and looks for a taxi. A black SUV drives up and a man gets out along with the driver, asking if the tie waala guy is Vijay and saying that they've been asked to get him to the function. Vijay is skeptical, but they manage to convince him and get him into the car, and then drive away.
Scene 8
Back in the tunnel, Daya sir, Shreya and the rescue workers arrive at the blocked passage and start calling out for Abhijeet sir. We see Abhijeet sir lying on the other side, too weak to answer them. The workers say their sounds don't seem to go beyond the blockage and it's unlikely that anybody survived over there. Daya sir maintains that there's somebody alive there and orders them to remove the boulders. The team puts in much effort to remove the blockage and reach Abhijeet sir.
Scene 9
We see ACP sir and Pankaj discussing what CT 2333 refers to. ACP sir says it seems to be a vehicle's registration number, but CT isn't the code of any state. He construes that T could refer to "travels" and asks Pankaj to find out online if there's any travel agency of that name/initials. Nikhil tries to ring up Abhijeet sir but fails, and they're worried. Pankaj finds out that there indeed exists one CT travels and one of their buses with registration number BZ 09 2333 is en route to Mumbai from Bangalore. ACP sir says the guy in the photo could be one of the passengers. They check the passenger list emailed by the agency and ACP sir notes that one of them, Vijay Kumar is the only possibility as he's 23 years old whereas the others are all either females or older men. He says Vijay is either involved with the baddies or a potential victim himself, and asks Nikhil to call the agency and find out more about him. Nikhil is told that Vijay had booked his tickets online via credit card, and gets his photo from the bank revealing that he's the same man from the photo. He says that the bus is about to arrive at the Kalanagar bus stand.
Scene 10
We see Vijay being taken in the car. He says he needs to meet one Rahul before attending the function, but the driver and man don't respond. He gets suspicious and uncomfortable and asks to be dropped off right there, his request being answered with leers from the men. He takes out his phone, but the man says its useless and where they're taking him, phones don't work at all. At this point we see a man sitting on the passenger seat up front, who's Vijay's lookalike and says he'll now impersonate him at the function. The other thug draws a gun and shoots Vijay.
Scene 11
Daya sir and Shreya finally manage to reach Abhijeet sir, and they have a relieved reunion. Daya sir asks the workers to take him to the hospital, and Shreya asks for Ramu's corpse to be moved as well (they don't even ask who he is?). Daya sir starts moving ahead and Abhijeet sir is worried, but Daya sir insists there's much work to be done. (For obvious reasons, I wasn't satisfied with this scene though will prefer not to go into details).
Scene 12
ACP sir, Nikhil and Pankaj come across the vacant bus and don't find Vijay anywhere in the vicinity. A nearby shopkeeper remembers seeing him disembarking from the bus and being taken away by the two men in the black car, who seemed to know him. Back in the car, ACP sir says Vijay was supposed to be attending the function at one GT auditorium where several brilliant young minds have been invited (again, how did they get this info?? There was nothing shown at all 😕). They find Vijay lying critically injured by the roadside; ACP sir calls for the ambulance. Before losing consciousness, Vijay informs them that the bad guys are going to impersonate him at the auditorium.
Scene 13
We see the fake Vijay driving up to the auditorium's parking lot, and disembarking with a large briefcase which he gives a smug look.
Scene 14
In the tunnel, Daya sir and Shreya reach a dead end of the tunnel containing several boxes with hay and aluminum foil. In one of them, they find a blueprint. Daya sir says that the baddies seemed to have been making some kind of powerful bomb. Shreya wonders where they're planning to cause the blast. Daya sir finds a rope ladder leading to a trapdoor overhead - the way out of the tunnel.
Scene 15
We see people being frisked before entering the building with the GT auditorium. The fake Vijay arrives and produces his ID, and completes the security check. The security guard lets him inside and informs that the function will start in 15 minutes.
Scene 16
Daya sir and Shreya emerge from a manhole right outside this same building and are greeted by ACP sir, Freddy sir, Sachin sir, Purvi, Jayawanti, Nikhil and Pankaj there. Daya sir informs them about the bomb which has been created and transported through the tunnel to the auditorium. ACP sir says the bomb is surely with the fake Vijay. At this point they spot him at the door, and seeing them, the fake Vijay bolts like a rabbit to his car and drives away. The cops chase him in their own car and manage to catch him. Daya sir seizes his briefcase and opens it; it contains a bomb with 20 minutes to go until detonation. Suddenly, an unseen assailant opens fire and hits Pankaj on the shoulder.
Purvi returns fire and disarms the attacker, who turns out to be one of Vijay's kidnappers. More goons arrive and the team engages them in combat and defeats them. One of them tries to detonate the bomb; Daya sir catches him and discovers that he's the assistant of the builder of the collapsed building (from Scene 6 of the previous episode). He slaps him hard and asks Nikhil to take Pankaj to the hospital. The assistant and fake Vijay start gloating that they cannot stop the bomb. Daya sir asks Shreya to cut a red wire, but it only results in the bomb's timer going down to 5 minutes. Daya sir asks the others to take the baddies into custody and, ignoring their warnings, takes the bomb suitcase and hops onto a nearby motorbike, and drives off into a lonely area where he jumps off the bike and over a ledge at the eleventh hour, sending it splashing into a lake where it explodes.
Scene 17
The team somehow sees/hears this happening (which of the two, I could not make out) and is shocked and devastated. The assistant blurts out "Daya toh gaya" (for goodness' sake, will you leave that dialogue alone already?? ). ACP sir roughs him up and orders him to blab his motives. The man confesses that they sell weapons to foreign enemies but due to recent stringent security measures, the notorious task had gotten hard. Therefore he bought a building and opened up the fake Ocean enterprises, under cover of which they dug a tunnel leading to the sea via which they could keep up their evil dealing. He had obtained a contract to murder the young brilliant children at the function, and thus sent the fake Vijay there with the bomb. However, Sanjana and Sikandar found out about it. ACP sir says that evil cannot harm the country ever in the presence of the CID. Sachin sir takes away the two crooks and the team is worried about Daya sir.
Scene 18
We see Daya sir climbing over the edge of the ledge he had jumped off, smiling and walking back to his team.
THE END
Note - Needless to say, the story underwent exponential decay through these two parts and culminated in a lackluster finale, with loopholes so obvious that they needn't even be pointed out. The only thing worth watching was the fine efforts of our actors, especially Aditya sir. 👏 👏 I can only imagine how hard it must've been to shoot in that tunnel, in all the darkness, heat and makeup. I'm sorry for any errors as the tunnel scenes were painfully dragged and the audio was pretty poor as well.
Hindi TV Shows
12