Vadh (2022 film)

Vadh (meaning: Execution) is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language thriller film written and directed by Jaspal Singh Sandhu, Rajiv Barnwal and produced by Luv Films. Vadh was theatrically released on 9 December 2022. It was featured at the 54th IFFI Indian panorama section.

Plot
Shambhunath Mishra (Sanjay Mishra) is an old man who lives with his wife Manju Mishra (Neena Gupta) in a dilapidated house in Gwalior and he is barely able to meet ends with his pension and through tuition to local kids. He has a son who has settled in the US with his family and is least concerned about his parents. Manju wants Shambhunath to ask their son Guddu/Diwakar (Diwakar Kumar) to send money back home, but Shambhunath is not able to do so due to his pride. They have to travel to an internet parlor to even Skype with Guddu, which is not convenient for them in their old age. Even then Guddu scolds them for calling him at 11 pm at night. Guddu's wife is simply not interested in having relationship with her in-laws. They have not been home in the last 6 yrs. Before Shambhunath can ask for any money, Guddu shuts the call as his daughter is getting cranky.

To send his son to the USA Shambhunath took an enormous student loan (of Rs 10 lakhs) from a bank at a floating interest rate and a loan shark Prajapati Pandey (Saurabh Sachdeva) by mortgaging his house to Prajapati (for Rs 15 lakhs). The bank EMIs are automatically deducted from his pension (which are sometimes higher when the interest rates are high) and sometimes he is short in paying his installment to Prajapati. At that time Diwakar had promised to pay off the loans, but now wont even look back at his parents and their misfortune. Prajapati being a criminal thoroughly exploits Shambhunath. He brings prostitutes over to their house and has sex in their bedroom (leaves his dirty condoms there for them to clean up), eats meat and drinks there.. even though he knows that the Mishra's are vegetarians and don't drink. Naina is a bubbly school-going kid, the only source of happiness in the lives of the Mishra family whose life is otherwise is tragic. She comes to their home for tuition. Diwakar sends rs 5000 home after Manju makes a missed call to him. When Shambhunath withdraws Rs 2500 from bank, Prajapati sees him and takes Rs 2000 against his remaining EMI payment.

Shakti Singh (Manav Vij) is a corrupt cop who is on the payroll of Prajapati. However, Shakti demands higher bribes for his increased criminal activities. Prajapati is annoyed but has little choice because he is a frontman for local MLA Dada who is handling the criminal operations from behind the scenes. Prajapati does not want the matter to be escalated to Dada and has to quickly think of a way to deal with the cop.

He decides to sell Shambhunath's house and threatens to vacate it in 2 days. As he is doing this he preys on Naina who is studying at his home. Shambhunath goes to the police station to file a complaint and finds Prajapati chatting with a visibly annoyed Shakti. After Prajapati leaves, Shambhunath requests Shakti to resolve his issue to which he flatly refuses. Later in the night when Shambhunath is alone at home (Manju was at the temple for 2-3 hrs) Prajapati arrives and assaults him. After he calms down, he tells Shambhunath to fetch Naina for him for an hour. For that he offers to forgo interest for 4 months and Rs 1.5 lakhs reduction from the principal. This is the breaking point for Shambhunath and in a fit of rage, he stabs the throat of Prajapati with a screwdriver. When Manju returns she is shocked to find the dead Prajapati. Shambhunath calms her down and disposes of the body (he cuts the body into little pieces, packs them into a jute bag, takes public transport outside of the city and dumps the jute bags in an abandoned fort). He later returns to the fort, burns the jute bags, collects the bones, returns to the city and mixes the bones at a wheat flour mill. Manju out of shock and anger stops speaking with him but she cooperates when Shakti comes for an investigation. Shakti says that Shambhunath's house was the last known location of Prajapati's cell phone. However, Manju is shattered when Prajapati's distressed wife comes with her daughter and pleads for any information about her husband. Out of guilt Shambhunath goes to the police station and confesses his crime with a detailed description to the constable as Shakti has gone elsewhere, but the constable dismisses it as a plot from a fictional crime magazine.

When Shambhunath reveals his motive for killing Prajapati, Manju fully supports and he feels guilt-free. Next day Shakti (whom the constable had told about Shambhu's visit to the police station) asks him to sign a confession of murder, to which he refuses for lack of evidence. Shambhu is called by Dada, who says that he has sold his house to a buyer to recoup the loan amount and gives him 3 days to vacate. Shambhu protests that he paid the loan amount to Prajapati. So, Dada says to produce Prajapati, who is missing, and reclaim his house. Manju and Shambhu again call Diwakar for Rs 10 lakhs, who says he cannot pay any money since he just bought a house himself in the US. He is quite insulting towards his parents and says that they are simply cooking up new excuses to take more and more money from him. Shambhu cuts the call.

Shakti later meets him outside the police station (by that time Shakti had spoken to the rickshaw puller who had taken Shambhu to the bus station with 2 jute bags a few nights ago) and tells him that he would absolve from murder charges if he hands him Prajapati's phone to which Shambhunath again refuses. When he reaches home, he find Prajapati's phone and goes to get a charger for it and checks the content of the Phone. On returning he sees that Dada is forcibly vacating his house. After a showdown, Dada gives him 3 days to repay his loan. Shambhunath then finally hands over Prajapati's phone to Shakti which has a video of him having affair with Dada's wife. Shambhu confesses the crime and says that he would do this again if anyone looked at a 12 yr old girl in the wrong way, again. Manju also meets Shakti and says that if Shambhu is arrested then she would also like to go to jail. As evidence she offers the murder weapon and Prajapati's blood stained clothes that were hidden in the house. As a part of the deal, Shakti then arrests Dada on Murder charges of Prajapati with the murder weapon and blood-stained clothes presumably recovered from the premises of Dada.

After all this turmoil Shambhunath and Manju handover their house to Naina and her family who is shown to be living in an impoverished house.

Cast

 * Sanjay Mishra as Shambhunath Mishra
 * Neena Gupta as Manju Mishra
 * Saurabh Sachdeva as Prajapati Pandey
 * Manav Vij as Shakti Singh
 * Nadeem Khan as Constable Sitaram Gadariya
 * Jaspal Singh Sandhu as 'Dada' alias Rathore
 * Sumit Gulati as Bittu
 * Ananya Singh as Naina
 * Umesh Kaushik as Navin
 * Diwakar Kumar as Diwakar Mishra
 * Pranjal Pateriya as Bakery owner
 * Abhitosh Singh Rajput as Pawan
 * Tanya Lal as Pandey's wife

Critical reception
Sonal Pandya reviewing for Hindustan Times praised the performances of Mishra and Gupta. Pooja Biraia Jaiswal reviewing for The Week rated 4/5 and praised Mishra and Gupta. Deepa Gahlot reviewing for Scroll.in praised the performances of Mishra, Gupta and Vij.