Bambai Meri Jaan follows the life of gangster Dara Kadri through the eyes of his father, an ex-cop. The series is currently streaming on Prime Video.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
In 1964, an honest police officer and a devout family man named Ismail Kadri is tasked with exposing the criminal nexus between gangsters Haji and Pathan. A special Task Squad is formed.
Ismail’s honesty is challenged but he effortlessly ignores Haji’s bribe. Later, he has to pay for a mistake when he has to save a relative, unaware that he’s the one who murdered his friend Ahmed.
Ismail’s integrity and livelihood are at stake as his other close friend and fellow STS member Yunis also defect to Haji’s side, succumbing to the fears for his family’s well-being and survival.
Ismail’s suspended and can’t get a job anywhere else, thanks to Haji pulling the strings. He remains steadfast on his morals and integrity, while the financial strain begins deforming his son Dara’s worldview.
Haji finally drives Isamail to a corner he can’t get out of and as his desperation overwhelms his principles, he has no other option than to join Haji. Twelve years later, Dara emerges as a new force in the underworld.
Dara’s come-up is challenged by Pathan’s gang members. Matters become personal and a face-off ensues in which Dara burns down Bilawal’s arena and chases them away after a beating.
Haji agrees to forgive him at the request of Ismail, only if he personally apologizes. He does, and Haji invites Dara to join his business and work under Bilawal, which miffs him and Pathan.
After a good spell of working under Bilawal, and a mixup from Ajju that costs him a beating, Dara declares war on Haji and Pathan as he gets his friend Nasir to print a sensational story about him.
Pathan sends his men to kill Dara and Abdullah but the two successfully kill them all in a bloody clash. Pathan’s two nephews, Yasir and Arif are embarrassed by this setback and rape Nasir’s wife Nasreen before killing her and then him on his wedding night.
Nasir survives long enough to utter Yasir’s name. Dara wages war and a bloodbath across Bombay follows. The deadly turf war between Haji and Pathans shocks the public and they soon track down Yasir and Arif, thanks to ACP Ranbir Malik.
Dara takes his revenge and later, agrees to a truce with the trio of the criminal overlords — Haji, Pathan, and Anna.
He soon sees an opportunity to move up in the world by forging new alliances and starting a business with the Dubai Sheikhs, marking the birth of D Company.
Dara’s empire expands with the Dubai Sheikhs while family tensions rise and Pathan, seeing revenge, plans to get back at Dara.
He hires a hitman named Ganiya Surve, who kills Saadiq. Dara begins another bloodbath and soon enlists a sharpshooter named Babban, aka Chhotu. Ganiya is taken care of by Malik. Dara personally takes out Anna.
Haroon absconds while Raiszada gives himself up to the police. However, Babban steps in and kills him at the court shortly after his hearing.
Dara continues his rampage and after a failed attempt at killing his family when he’s in Dubai, he finally kills Pathan. However, the police come knocking and he has to flee. Ismail remains, and so does Sakina and Habiba.
A new dawn emerges and Habiba seems to take over Bombay’s business. She gets her family’s revenge on Haroon and gets him killed, just as Bambai Meri Jaan concludes its first season.
Bambai Meri Jaan ending explained in detail:
What happens to Ismail?
Ismail Kadri is one of the main characters who also serves as the narrator in Bambai Meri Jaan. He begins the story in 1964. He’s an honest policeman who gets the opportunity to do something important.
IAS Arvind, with the support of the Home Minister, forms a Special Task Squad, led by Ismail with his two best friends and colleagues Ahmed and Yunis. They are tasked with exposing the criminal nexus between gangsters Haji and Pathan.
Ismail does his best and succeeds in raising their shipments and seizing their gold while rejecting Haji’s attempts at bribing him. However, when a raid by his two friends in his absence goes wrong, everything changes.
His brother-in-law, a junkie and petty criminal, who recently started working for Haji, comes home running asking to be saved for the last time or Haji’s men will kill him. At his wife’s request, Ismail takes Rahim and puts him on a train.
However, he’s unaware that Rahim just killed his friend Ahmed during the chase after the raid. Witnesses and Yunis’s testimony cost Ismail’s job, as IAS Arvind’s hands are tied and he takes off. Ismail is gutted.
Worse fate follows when he can’t find a job anywhere, electricity frequently eludes only his house, and financial troubles plague him which deform his son Dara’s worldview.
Ismail is backed into a corner when Rahim’s killed in front of him, intimidating him into complicity by Haji, Pathan, and Anna. That’s the point after which Bambai Meri Jaan turns for the worse for Ismail.
For ten years he works for them until Dara comes of age and joins Haji, which is when Ismail can’t work any longer for his filthy empire and see his son do the same. He’s relieved of his duties by Haji.
All while Dara climbs up his way to the top of the mafia and the underworld, Ismail’s soul keeps getting crushed and he feels suffocated from all the blood money, and the joys that the rest of the family entertains from it.
He leaves the home on his wedding day of Saadiq and rents a small room in a neighboring area. When Saadiq loses his life, he’s wrecked with even more pain.
Ismail continuously tries to broker peace between Haji and Dara, succeeding sometimes and other times failing. When the turf war reaches its climax and his family is again threatened, Ismail finally picks up a gun to defend them and shoots Bilawal in the head, along with some of his men.
Dara leaves for Dubai with Abdullah, Babban, and others, but Ismail stays, remaining adamant that he won’t pay for Dara’s sins. He and his wife Sakina are taken care of by their daughter Habiba by the end of Bambai Meri Jaan.
How does Saadiq die?
Saadiq always felt like he was given a second thought and less than Dara, which he was. Dara was put in an English school while Saadiq, who always wanted the same for him, had to live with compromises.
Despite being the elder son, this second status festered into a bigger insecurity into adulthood. When he starts getting sidelined during the business meetings with Dubai, the old wounds become fresh again.
Saadiq doesn’t feel like he is respected or understood by anyone, except for Chitra, a prostitute he’s had an affair with for some time. His affair with her continues even after his marriage to Kainaaz, who soon gets pregnant.
Meanwhile, Pathan tries to kill Dara but he can’t do it personally so he hires a hitman named Ganiya Surve to do so. Ganiya targets Saadiq and pays Jayashree, another prostitute, to tip him off when Saadiq visits the brothel again.
She does, and Ganiya begins following Saadiq as he takes Chitra out to eat ice cream, while also deciding to marry her. However, on their way home, Ganiya and his men open fire on Saadiq and Chitra, killing them both.
His death fuels the flame of revenge that burns inside Dara and the rest of the Kadri family and D Company, eventually burning all Pathan gang members in its fury before Bambai Meri Jaan rolls the credits.
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