Aranyak on Netflix revolves around two cops who get embroiled in a mysterious case that exposes a number of secrets and a web of lies.
Summary
Kasturi Dogra (Raveena Tandon), a female cop in the fictional town in the hills ‘Sironah’, is about to take a year-long sabbatical from her job to take care of her family.
Angad Mallik (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) is her temporary replacement. As soon as he arrives, the two bicker due to the differences in their style of operating.
When a foreign tourist named Julie Baptiste (Breshna Khan) reports that her daughter Aimee (Anastasiya Hamolka) is missing, things begin to unravel. She is found dead, hanging from a tree, with claw marks on her neck.
Kasturi’s father-in-law, retried cop Mahadaev Dogra (Ashutosh Rana), believes it to be the work of half-man, half-leopard local myth called ‘Nartendua’, that escaped from him 19 years ago after committing a series of murders.
Unable to let the first huge case in years slip from her hands, Kasturi resumes her role and begins investigating along with Angad.
Their first suspect is Kanti Dhumal (Tejaswi Dev), son of local minister Jagdamba Dhumal (Meghna Malik), who has a history of rape convictions. However, the evidence does not point towards him.
Julie’s boyfriend, Sundar Raja (Ajeet Singh Palwat), is also a prime suspect, who provides them valuable information, but is murdered in court with similar claw marks to Aimee, leading to more questions than answers.
As the investigation moves forward, more suspects arise. Julie, herself, is thought to be clearly hiding something from the two police officers.
Gagan (Pratyaksh Rajbhatt), the scholar son of the DC, met Aimee the night of her murder at the hotel Bom, where he came along with Kanti, making them both suspicious.
Local guide Bunty Rawat (Wishvesh Sharkholi) eventually confesses, but his words do not seem to convince Kasturi and Angad that he is guilty.
To further complicate everything, the kidnapper and potential murderer of Angad’s son Maroot, Omi Chawla (Mahesh Shetty), is spotted by him in Sironah.
With so many questions coming forth, it’s up to the two cops to dig up all the answers.
If you still have doubts from the final episode, here’s a full breakdown.
Aranyak ending explained in detail:
The fight back
Omi comes to Manhas (Zakir Hussain) to seek protection, and Kasturi’s daughter Nutan (Taneesha Joshi) asks Bunty to meet her, after the latter’s name has been cleared.
The owner of the local cafe, Govind Agarwal (Danish Iqbal), is called by the police due to evidence of him heading out with a rope on the night of the murder.
However, he reveals that his lover was killed by the ‘Nartendua’ 19 years ago, and he heads out on lunar eclipses to hunt it down and take revenge.
Manhas’ goon, Chottu (Faiz Khan), attempts to abduct Nutan to blackmail Kasturi but is stopped by her husband Hari (Vivek Madan) and Bunty.
Meanwhile, Gagan is exposed as the one who raped Aimee. After she fainted due to drugs given to her by Kanti, Gagan sexually assaulted her.
Chottu reveals that Manhas asked him to kill Aimee to prevent Gagan from going to jail, since he would use this information to blackmail the DC into convincing Jagadamba to approve building a resort in Sironah.
Who is the real Nartendua?
Mahadev does some digging up, and comes to the conclusion that Jagadamba’s servant Nandan is an ex-convict who move to Sironah, and was responsible for the killings 19 years ago, making him the real ‘Nartendua’.
They warn Jagadamba, but it is revealed that she was the one who ordered Nandan to take care of Aimee after Chottu murdered her and put her in Kanti’s car to frame him. But she was unaware that he was the ‘Nartendua’.
Nandan confesses that he killed all those women because he has always been in love with her and his jealousy of her husband caused him to vent out his anger through murders.
He used the myth to his advantage, making everyone believe that the cause was supernatural. He also killed Sundar to stop him from taking Kanti’s name in court.
She is frightened and attempts to escape, but Nandan, after some effort, catches her and takes her to the jungle before the police can arrive.
Nandan tussles with Kasturi first, and then Mahadev. Kasturi finds Jagadamba heavily injured by Nandan’s claw weapon.
Mahadev, with help from Govind, subdues Nandan and hangs him from a rope, telling Govind to get more men while he watches him.
Is Maroot alive?
While the others face the Nartendua, Angad follows Omi and indulges in a gunfight. Kasturi comes to support her.
Using her expertise in rifle shooting, she hits Omi, but he manages ti injure Angad. Bleeding, Angad reaches Omi and urges him to reveal what happened to Maroot.
Omi tells him that his son is alive, but shoots Angad, leaving Kasturi distraught. He lies on the ground with his injuries.
Maroot is revealed to now be a drug peddler for Omi with the code name ‘Rabbit’. When one client refuses to pay, Maroot stabs him in the eye without flinching, showing he had become a thug like Omi.
The fate of Jagadamba, Nandan and Angad all hang in the balance, as a glimpse of the mysterious mushrooms, that were mentioned throughout the show, is given.
Aranyak ends with a reflection in the water of the actual Nartendua, proving its existence. The folklore is real, and will presumably be explored in the second season.
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