Khufiya follows an agent’s efforts to catch the mole, who is responsible for an undercover agent’s death, in the Indian intelligence agency. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
After the Kargil War of 1999, the intelligence agencies of India and Pakistan tried to influence the outcome of the next elections of a neighboring country. The events of the film take place during this time.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2004, an undercover agent tries to assassinate the defense minister of Bangladesh, Brigadier Mirza. However, someone warns Mirza about the assassination attempt, which leads to Mirza killing the undercover agent.
The undercover agent was Heena Rehman. Three years ago, she convinced Krishna Mehra, commonly known as KM, an Indian agent, to hire her to work for R&AW, the Indian intelligence agency, in Bangladesh.
While working together, KM and Heena develop feelings for each other. KM then finds out that Heena is also working for Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI. Heena claims that she joined the ISI to help KM, but KM refuses to believe her.
To prove her loyalty, Heena meets KM’s boss, Jeev, and asks him to let her assassinate Mirza, which would be beneficial for India. However, the operation goes wrong, and Heena dies, leaving KM heartbroken.
KM had come out to her husband and divorced him. Her ex-husband is supportive, so he does not tell their son the reason behind their divorce. As KM is unable to be there for her son because of her job, her son starts asking her questions that she cannot answer.
Jeev then informs KM that there is a mole in the agency and that Heena died because of him. Jeev suspects an agent named Ravi Mohan of selling information to another country. Jeev bugs Ravi’s office, and his suspicions are confirmed.
However, Jeev does not arrest Ravi. He wants to let him sell confidential information for a little while to find out who is Ravi working for. The mission is named Mission Brutus, and KM will be heading it. This way, she can avenge Heena’s death.
KM bugs Ravi’s house, as his wife, Charu, is suspected of aiding her husband. KM then finds out how Ravi’s mother, and not Charu, has been helping him sell confidential information about R&AW’s operations to the CIA.
The CIA is trying to keep the ISI happy, as the CIA needs information about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. The Home Minister of India was aware of this, but he did not inform the intelligence agency.
Once the agency comes to know that Ravi is working for the CIA, they plan to arrest him. However, the night before, Ravi finds a hidden camera in his house and figures out that R&AW is onto him. He kills the agents keeping an eye on him and tries to escape with his family.
However, Charu refuses to betray her country and leave with Ravi and his mother. Charu also tries to stop them from taking her son, Kunal, but she fails because Ravi’s mother shoots her. The CIA helps Ravi flee the country with his mother and son.
Six months after the incident, Charu finds a picture of Ravi with KM and Jeev. She recognizes KM, as KM is the one who took her to the hospital when R&AW was monitoring Ravi’s house and Charu had an accident.
Charu approaches KM and starts working with R&AW to bring Ravi and his mother back to India. As Ravi is under the CIA’s protection, he cannot be extradited, so they need Charu’s help to trap him.
Charu is trained by KM and sent to the US, where she reunites with her family. Ravi is suspicious of Charu, but his mother is assured by their trusted guru that Charu has not been recruited by any agency.
With time, Charu manages to win her family’s trust, and even the CIA gets convinced that Charu is clean. Everyone thinks that she has come to the US to be with her son and her family and believes that she is not working for any agency.
Khufiya ending explained in detail:
Is Charu’s secret exposed?
One day, Charu contacts KM, as she wants to return to India with her son as soon as possible. While KM is able to get her to calm down and wait patiently, a neighbor, who has also been an informant for the CIA, sees her talking to KM on the phone.
To protect Charu’s secret, KM kills him. This leads to Charu trying to escape with her son. She believes that human lives do not matter to people like KM, and she does not trust KM anymore.
KM does not force her to stay, but after talking to her, Charu gets convinced to keep working for R&AW. She then manages to record Ravi’s conversation with a CIA agent, David. The video is enough to get Ravi and his family deported.
Does Ravi agree to work with R&AW?
David tells Ravi that Mirza is coming to the US and is going to meet him to thank him for saving his life. When KM finds out about this, she wants to make a deal with Ravi to assassinate Mirza, the man who killed Heena.
KM defies Jeev’s orders and meets Ravi and his mother. She tells them that they will be deported if she gives the video to the CIA, but if they work with her, they will be taken back to India with respect and not as traitors. She leaves them no choice but to work with her.
Does Ravi kill Mirza?
Mirza, David, and his wife come to Ravi’s house for dinner, and Charu poisons the food. KM gets one of her contacts to cut the power at David’s house, so David has to go back home to check on his daughter.
As Ravi and his mother keep coaxing Mirza to eat the food but stop David’s wife from consuming it, Mirza grows suspicious. He takes Ravi’s mother at knifepoint and ends up killing her when she tries to get away. Ravi knocks Mirza out and almost kills him, but KM stops him.
How does the mission end?
When David returns, he finds Charu holding his wife at knifepoint. KM talks to David and gets him to confess that the US engaged in espionage in India, a country that they call an ally. This confession is also recorded.
David cannot risk this video being released to the public, so he does what KM wants him to do — he lets Mirza die and makes his death look like an accident. After the mission is over, Ravi is brought back to India by R&AW.
Charu also gets to return home with her son. She then encourages KM to tell her son, who will only talk to KM when she is ready to answer his questions truthfully, about her sexuality. KD finally gets the courage to come out to her son.
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