Serial Killer movies are always a sell-out because there is nothing more interesting than understanding why a person commits murder and figuring out the psyche of the person carrying it out. Such movies help people understand how complicated the human mind is and how anything around them could trigger the worst in them. Operation Mayfair is one such film that is about a serial killer who was inactive for years and has suddenly reappeared with the same MO. Will the police catch the killer this time? Or, again, this time around, will the killer get away?
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In ‘Operation Mayfair’ Film?
Operation Mayfair begins by establishing the fact that there is a serial killer on the prowl who gets rid of his targets. Set in London, a tall, bulky man wearing a hoodie enters the home of Sarah Jones, a famous model in the country, who is alone and unguarded at that point. By the looks of it, the woman did not expect to be attacked by a stranger at this hour of the day. The man confronts this woman and begins to physically assault her by reliving the trauma he was put through by another woman. The man is not stopping at this point and forces the woman to get down on all fours so that he can complete his task. With the construction of this scene and the way this man is reliving a disturbing past, it is easy to comprehend that he is clinically insane and has suffered some deep trauma in his childhood. The trauma triggers his worst side, which pushes him to brutally assault the woman in her home. The man ends up killing the woman rather quickly and gets away from the scene of the crime. The man assumes he can get away with this killing. His confidence is his biggest weapon, and so far, it has helped him remain undetected by the police.
Sarah Jones being a high-profile victim, puts pressure on the Metropolitan Police to find the killer. Lisa, the detective with the above-mentioned station, is leading the case, and she recommends that Amar join the investigative team. Lisa wants Amar on this team because a few years ago, the same serial killer was out committing similar crimes, and Amar was the lead investigative officer back then. Though he could not catch the culprit, he had ample knowledge about the case. Lisa’s trust in Amar and his understanding of the case allow the police commissioner to bring him in.
Amar would be able to give another perspective to this investigation, which would help them procure a new lead with the advent of technology. Amar is initially not interested in taking up the case because, previously, the same serial killer case managed to ruin his personal and professional life. But Amar is strangely drawn to this case because of his past involvement in it. This pushes Amar to help the police nab the serial killer. If they manage to catch the killer, it would be a big victory not just for the department but also a personal victory for Amar as well. Amar was very close to catching the killer in the past, but the person went missing.
The serial killer happens to be Kevin Da’Costa, who, to the viewer’s surprise, works for the police department’s forensic team. Kevin works for the law-and-order system, and this allows him to stay ten steps ahead of the police. With every murder he commits, he makes sure to leave no DNA or evidence around. Being the forensic lead gives him the liberty to manipulate the crime scene’s findings. Kevin carries out the murders in the same fashion as before, and by the looks of it, he is in no mood to stop.
Kevin himself has a family but does not have good relations with his wife. Kevin’s past has made sure he does not communicate with his wife, but somehow his kid from the marriage allows Kevin to stay connected to reality. The only good memories that Kevin has are of his father teaching him to play the piano and reading Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest. Both have had a huge impact on him because to get rid of the urges and the pain of his abuse, Kevin indulges in playing the piano in his hideout. The line from “The Tempest,” which resonates with Kevin a lot, is about how the past is connected to the future. It can have a positive connotation, but in Kevin’s arc, his history of being abused has a connection to his turning into a serial killer. His stepmother’s verbal and physical abuse left a deep impact, and it is visible through his modus operandi. His smartness lies in the fact that he has not been caught yet. Kevin is unwilling to deal with the trauma the right way, which is to approach a psychiatrist. But instead, he exploits his position as the forensic team leader to derail the investigation.
‘Operation Mayfair’ Ending Explained: How Did Kevin Get Arrested?
As the investigation into this murder begins, Kevin again murders a prostitute right under the noses of his bosses. The police are clueless at this point because, just like before, the killer manages to get away with no DNA or evidence at the scene of the crime. Kevin’s ability to get away with the crime allows him to pursue other women and continue executing them. The word “moron” is his trigger point because he was repeatedly called that word by his stepmother as per memories from his childhood. He forces the woman he is about to kill to call him a moron, which pushes him to carry out the killing. Kevin sees his abusive stepmother in all of his targets. His trauma manifests in such a manner that it becomes difficult for him to stop himself. Kevin unintentionally reveals his psychotic side to the police department’s psychiatrist, Sonia Kapoor, and she makes a note of his behavior. Sonia, being good at her job, was quick to understand that Kevin is a damaged person, and he specifically has an issue with the word moron. Maybe Sonia has worked with many patients in the past who have had childhood trauma, which allowed her to deduce that Kevin needs to be counseled to know more about his past.
Kevin Da’Costa confuses the police investigation further, kills a usual suspect named Jared, and leaves behind a suicide note on the victim’s phone. His sole intention was to distract his employers from any leads that would make him a suspect. Kevin is in no mood to get caught, and he is willing to commit any number of murders to keep that from happening. He does not act smartly because Amar has concluded that the killer is left-handed. If Jared is a killer and left-handed, as per Amar’s investigation, the man would have shot himself on the left side of his temple instead of the right side. This circles back to the point that the killer is now afraid of being caught, and his plan to mislead the police is now wide open.
Amongst all the chaos that is going on in the police department to get hold of the serial killer, Kevin murders another woman named Olive. The woman is killed in the same manner as his previous victims, but this time there is a witness to his crime. Realizing his streak might be over, he did not complete the actual modus operandi because he knew the witness would inform the police. Fortunately for him, the witness does not remember anything about his face. Luck was on his side when Kevin was never found at the scene of the crime. This time he ran out of it because his half-covered face was caught by the bus camera. This was the only lead the police required because, for many years, there was never an ounce of visual evidence available to help them nab the killer. Kevin mostly became overconfident and believed this time again, he would get away, but he miscalculated the CCTV footage angle of this crime.
Amar also narrowed in on the Alexa device transcripts that were found at the prostitute’s home, where she was found murdered. The word moron was excessively used, and Sonia Kapoor was quick to conclude that Kevin had a problem with that word. Amar has come very close to understanding who Kevin is. Amar’s interest in Kevin stemmed from Sonia’s analysis of his behavior. Amar and Sonia got in touch with the orphanage where Kevin grew up. His guardian father lets Amar know that Kevin’s stepmother was violent to him, and he was admitted to the orphanage after his father’s death. Most of the violence he was put through, combined with abandonment, made him a toxic human being. He killed his stepmother out of sheer distaste and got away with it. This gave him the conviction to murder women who reminded him of his stepmother. Kevin’s mind had gone off the deep end, and he was unwilling to take any psychiatric help. The only way to stop him is to arrest him.
Kevin’s face is recognized by facial scanner software on the image the police have of him. Before Lisa is informed that Kevin is the killer on the loose, he whisks Lisa away to his hideout by claiming that he found solid evidence. Kevin didn’t want to be arrested in a place from where he could not escape. He isolates her from the rest of her team to let her know that he is the one who has been killing women. Kevin was not feeling guilty at this point. He keeps Lisa hostage and runs away. Lisa is rescued by Amar and Sonia in the nick of time. Amar spots Kevin running away, and a long chase begins. Kevin hopes to abet the arrest and escape jail time if he moves to another city, but fate has other plans. Kevin is finally caught and arrested at a local train station. Amar’s quest to nab the killer is finally over. It was Kevin who made things easy for Amar and Lisa by being smug in his pursuit to kill more women.
Kevin informs the police that he will plead insanity and seek a place in a mental health facility. The man knows he can make demands because he blackmails Lisa and the commissioner about letting the citizens know of the department’s misdemeanors over the years. Since Kevin worked in close quarters with the police, it gave him the leverage to dictate terms. Lisa, her boss, and Amar are not very happy with the conclusion because they wanted to put Kevin through a trial and present him as the killer. But Kevin wanted to be out within seven years because he had learned nothing from his arrest and still believed what he did was right. The last scene of Operation Mayfair has Kevin going through a medical test conducted by a nurse. He lets the nurse know that she resembles his stepmother and that he would like to meet her in seven years, indicating that he will go after her and possibly murder her. The man does not shy away from letting out sly threats such as this. Kevin is a delusional man who never understood the kind of negative impact his childhood trauma had on him. He was willing to continue committing crimes without understanding the consequences.
Final Thoughts
Operation Mayfair was marred by a severe case of a supremely flawed screenplay, which affected the direction, editing, post-production, and the performances of the actors. The movie does not work in any of the departments because all these aspects were mishandled, and the product became a slugfest even though the runtime of the film was just under 2 hours. The movie managed to shock me as a viewer with how abysmal and tacky the handling of the subject at hand was. A serial killer story has to be interesting, but this film was anything but that. The entire plot of Operation Mayfair was predictable, which would leave the audience frustrated. The acting and the dialogues were poor; none of them brought out any kind of emotion. The serial killer’s origin story was written lazily. Many scenes were just not required, and it was the job of the director and editor to chop the scenes that served no purpose in the narrative. One would feel sad for Jimmy Shergill, who is forcing himself to speak those dialogues. He looked visibly uncomfortable while delivering it. Overall, Operation Mayfair can be skipped for your sanity.
Operation Mayfair is a Hindi-language film now streaming on Netflix with subtitles.
