Ayushmann Khurrana Sheds Light On That Mysterious Ending Of ‘Andhadhun’

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for ‘Andhadhun’. So, please watch the movie first and then read this article. And if you don’t have a problem with spoiling the ending of the movie, read on.

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Ayushmann Khurrana has made a name for himself by choosing unconventional films, like ‘Vicky Donor’, ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’ etc. However, in the last few years he has been successful in turning those offbeat stories into box-office hits. His 2018 releases, ‘Andhadhun’ and ‘Badhai Ho’, has not only won over the critics, but is also churning in huge numbers.

Now, although we can keep raving about Ayushmann’s naturalistic acting and ability to convince everyone that he’s blind in ‘Andhadhun’ for hours, let’s keep that discussion for another day. Instead, let’s focus on the ending of that movie that left everybody baffled.

‘Andhadhun’ director Sriram Raghavan, along with his team of talented writers, spins an interesting tale about a blind pianist, Akash, who walks into a murder mystery by mistake. And while his efforts to get out of it is thrilling as hell, it’s the ending that has everyone talking even now. A spoiler alert is in effect!

During the final moments of the movie, we see Radhika Apte’s Sofie walking through Europe when a familiar voice starts to fill her ears. She instinctively follows it and lo and behold, it’s Ayushmann’s Akash, alive and singing. Sofie listens to his now finished song, meets him after for a cup of coffee after the performance and asks him that how the hell is he alive when he was presumed dead.

So, Akash tells him everything about what happened after he left. He accuses the doctor for planning to harvest Simi’s (Tabu) eyes, use it to cure Akash’s blindness and also sell her other body parts to some black market buyer. He also tells her how that plan went awry and both the doctor and Simi died, leaving Akash as blind as he was before. However, and here comes the kicker, when he walks away, Akash whacks a piece of trash on the road, which he couldn’t have seen if he was really blind.

This ending had everyone speculating that Akash was lying to Sofie to cover his crimes and he had in fact used Simi’s eyes to cure himself. Another half of the internet believed Akash had escaped India and found a way to cure his blindness by earning money through his singing. And according to Huffpost India, Ayushmann is in support of one of those theories.

“So, to my mind, I have killed Tabu off and used her cornea to get my sight back. I am in Europe doing what I was trying to do back in Pune, playing a blind pianist.”

Sorry to break your optimistic hearts, but that’s much more believable. Because a blind hare, which was being chased by a farmer, jumping onto Tabu’s car, making it flip and combust instantaneously is a Mt. Kanchenjunga-sized stretch. And as Akash has been shown to be a pathological liar, it’s quite plausible that he’d lie to Sofie to win her trust back and act as if he doesn’t even know about the existence of an illegal organ harvesting market.

Was that too dark? Then here’s something to cheer you up. Ayushmann Khurrana was asked if Sofie finding out where Akash was, had any parallels with the Damien Chazelle movie, ‘La La Land’. Here’s what he had to say,

“Oh, absolutely. Sriram (Raghavan) loved the movie. It had released at the time they were writing it. It’s definitely him tipping his hat to ‘La La Land’.”

And why wouldn’t he? ‘La La Land’ is such a great movie. And it being an inspiration was confirmed by Raghavan himself in a separate interview,

“I was listening to the ‘La La Land’ soundtrack constantly while writing ‘AndhaDhun’, so it organically made its way into the script.”

The thing about ambiguous endings is not to provide you with a concrete answer. Instead, it’s to keep you talking so that the movie itself remains relevant. Some of the biggest examples are ‘Inception‘, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘The Sopranos’. So, if you agree with Ayushmann’s interpretation, hope you have a good sleep. But if you don’t, you can refute it and put forth arguments of your own. That’ll only generate more intrigue among more casual viewers and push them to make Ayushmann’s movies even bigger hits.

Cover Image Source: Viacom 18 Motion Pictures