Mission Majnu is a spy-thriller film that follows Amandeep Ajitpal Singh, an undercover agent from India who lives in Pakistan as an ordinary citizen with the task of providing intel. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Plot summary
In 1971, after Pakistan lost its third war against India, the country was hell-bent on revenge. The story is about an Indian spy who foiled their efforts to gain the upper hand.
In 1974, Amandeep Ajitpal Singh is situated in Rawalpindi with the mission to gain valuable intel and send it back to R&AW in Delhi. His alias is Tariq Ali.
While there, he puts on the facade of being a tailor to get a job. He falls in love with his employer’s sister-in-law, a blind girl named Nasreen, and they get married. Nasreen gets pregnant soon after.
After India’s nuclear tests in Pokhran in 1974, Pakistan internationally condemns the actions to the extent that any further tests would be suspended.
In reality, they are planning to conduct their own nuclear test to gain power. R&AW chief K.N. Rao meets Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who fully supports his mission for gaining intelligence.
Rao has faith in Amandeep to carry out the mission to gain intel despite reservations from the department. The reason for this is that Amandeep’s father is considered a traitor by the entire department as he sold valuable intel to Pakistan and ended up committing suicide due to the shame.
K.N Rao believes that this is precisely why Amandeep has the motivation to atone for the sins of his father. He was also the top cadet in the academy.
For the nuclear tests, Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto recalls world-renowned scientist A.Q. Khan. Amandeep manages to infiltrate the house of an army officer as a tailor, who divulges information that the nuclear tests will be conducted near Rawalpindi.
R&AW takes a blow as Indira Gandhi loses the elections and is replaced by BJP’s Morarji Desai, who thinks of R&AW as Congress’ personal spies. He cuts their budget by 50% and asks Rao to stop the mission.
K.N. Rao resigns in protest, but it’s actually a distraction tactic. He orders his men to continue the mission.
Amandeep is constantly called a traitor’s son by his higher-up, Sharma, whom he communicates with via phone calls. Despite this, Amandeep continues his mission with great determination.
He finds an allied spy named Aslam in Rawalpindi. Sharma has tasked Aslam with keeping an eye on Amandeep. In case he finds anything suspicious, he will be the one to shoot Amandeep.
Amandeep finds more hints of the tests in Rawalpindi when he finds one place with a western toilet, made for foreign visitors, like A.Q. Khan’s wife.
Nasreen’s father overhears Amandeep on the phone but assumes he is having an affair. Aslam sees the altercation and believes Amandeep’s cover has been blown. Sharma asks Aslam to kill him.
Aslam instead kills Nasreen’s father. Amandeep confronts him and beats him up as Nasreen’s father didn’t know the reality. The two also find another ally in Senior Field Officer Raman Singh.
Nasreen notices how ‘Tariq’ has been avoiding him. She asks what’s bothering her husband, but he is unable to tell her the truth.
Pakistan PM Bhutto is overthrown by the military chief General Zia-ul-Haq on corruption charges, and he quickly assumes control of the country. In a conversation with Morarji Desai, he assures him that his country has no plans for a nuclear test.
Israel believes that Quetta is the location where Pakistan is planning the nuclear test and plans an air strike. Amandeep needs to find proof of the correct location.
He finds that the army has ordered special jackets near Rawalpindi. Upon closer inspection, Aslam and he find a facility in Kahuta, a city near Rawalpindi.
But Sharma and R&AW need concrete evidence that the nuclear test will be conducted in Kahuta to stop the aerial strike by Israel on Quetta.
Mission Majnu ending explained in detail:
How does Amandeep expose Pakistan’s nuclear plans?
To procure solid evidence that Kahuta is the location of the planned nuclear test, Amandeep comes up with a strategy, accompanied by Aslam and Raman.
Since there is only one barber shop in the entire Kahuta, he realises that the hair samples of the soldiers located in Kahuta would have traces of radiation.
As Aslam and Raman distract all those present around the barber shop, Amandeep gets his hands on a hair sample but quickly needs to send it to Delhi.
He boards a train from Lahore to India but the soldiers catch on to him. He hides the hair sample in the luggage of a woman and fights off the soldiers, barely managing to escape after jumping into the water.
Sharma gets the hair sample and the tests reveal traces of radiation and uranium. R&AW contacts Israel and they stop the strike on Quetta.
Sharma apologises for constantly insulting Amandeep and calls him a true patriot. Morarji Desai is informed of the nuclear tests as well.
The Prime Minister contacts General Zia-ul-Haq and warns him to cease any nuclear tests. The General reluctantly agrees and criticises the ISI for being unable to locate Indian spies in their own country.
What happens to Indian spies in Pakistan?
Frustrated at the foiling of his country’s plans, General Zia-ul-Haq orders the ISI chief to sniff out any R&AW spies in Pakistan and eliminate them.
The ISI chief asks officials to trace any phone calls made to India and kill the people, even if it means innocent Pakistani citizens will die as well in the process. The phone lines to India are also banned.
Aslam is the first victim, and more spies around Pakistan are quickly killed off. Amandeep is planning to move to Dubai with Nasreen and becomes suspicious when he is unable to make a phone call to India.
Raman meets him and asks for the two to flee as they’re after all spies and Aslam has already been killed, but Amandeep responds that he will not betray Nasreen and that the two will go together.
The Pakistani soldiers locate Raman. With no escape in sight, Raman looks at the picture of his family in India, and ignites his own jeep, taking out multiple soldiers with his sacrifice in the ensuing explosion.
Is Amandeep dead or alive?
The soldiers trace the phone calls to Amandeep’s brother-in-law, who tells them about ‘Tariq’. Orders are given to stop Amandeep and Nasreen but they have crossed the checkpoints by that time.
At the airport, Amandeep realises that the soldiers have come for them. He lies to Nasreen that there is a different section for women and he will meet her on ‘the other side’, but not before he names their unborn child ‘Aman’.
The soldiers find Nasreen but Amandeep manages to get their attention. They chase after him and he attempts to survive till Nasreen’s flight has taken off.
Once he sees the ‘departed’ signal, he smiles as the soldiers riddle him with bullets. There is no chance for him to be alive after this point.
K.N. Rao approach Nasreen in Dubai and reads out a letter addressed to her by Amandeep in the case of his death. In the letter, he comes clean about everything he hid from her but says that he always loved her truly.
Nasreen is distraught by his death and cannot hold back her tears. Amandeep is at least able to die with the knowledge that his wife and unborn child are safely out of the grasp of the Pakistan army.
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