The new film on Zee5 titled Haddi is a tale of murder and revenge, and Nawazuddin Siddique plays the role of a transgender woman in pursuit of vengeance. The plot is intriguing, and director Akshat Ajay Sharma brings his own sense of brutality, inspired by the films of Anurag Kashyap. The only part of the story that seems far-fetched is not the brutality of the violence, but the characters’ lack of rootedness. The writing falters, and after a point, it becomes irredeemable. Yet Haddi remains engaging, and Nawaz brings his A game to this film. There is also Anurag Kashyap, who acts in the film as the main antagonist. It is fun to see him on screen, trying his hand at acting. He isn’t a complete novice in this department, but his villainous turn is at times hilarious, but mostly falls flat and unconvincing. The story revolves around Nawaz’s character, Haddi, a trans person who undergoes several stages of change in the film, both physically and spiritually, and ultimately has to walk the criminal path to complete their revenge.

Spoilers Ahead

Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Movie?

Six months after changing their appearance to that of a man and being on the quest for revenge, Haddi began to steal corpses with a man named Malkan in Prayagraj. His plan was to get to Delhi and meet Inder, a man who has connections with a politician named Pramod Ahlawat. He was the big enchilada that Haddi was after. But there was no straight path leading to the man, so he first decided to work for a man named Shakun. When the police were on their tail, Haddi murdered Malkan and fled to Delhi. There, he helped Inder’s men and proved his Mettle by killing a police officer. They took him in, but Inder was pissed. It was only when Shakun vouched for Haddi that Inder realized that he could benefit from him. It wasn’t for nothing that he got the name Haddi.

Why Did Everyone Call Him Haddi?

If his own version of events was to be believed, then he was called Haddi (which means bone), because he didn’t have one in his neck, which is how he survived a lynching attempt in his youth. Haddi was hanged by his neck, but luck favored him. On the brink of death, the noose slipped, and Haddi survived. The story behind the lynching attempt may have been true, but the real reason he was called Haddi is that in these last six months, he has proved to be devilishly good when it came to removing flesh from bones. You see, that’s the reason Malkan and Haddi were stealing corpses. The police thought that it was a case of organ trafficking, but corpses don’t yield usable organs. The real racket was skeleton trafficking, and Haddi was unbelievably good at getting corpses and then processing the bones to be smuggled outside India. This is what his previous employer, Shakun, did, and Inder was just entering this abominable business.

How Did Inder Lead Haddi To Pramod Ahlawat?

Inder had men, who were basically Crossdressers, who worked for him. They made some money through extortion and blackmailing customers who had been filmed doing indecent things on camera. But this money was not enough for Inder to get the Party-Ticket, that would enable him to stand for local elections. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of his boss, Pramod Ahlawat, who was a goon-turned-politician. Inder needed 50 million as soon as possible. This was the price of the ticket. He could get this only through the bone trafficking racket. Now that he had Haddi working for him, he thought it was a possibility. But Haddi had come into his gang only to weaken and divide it so that it wouldn’t be a problem when he went in to kill Pramod. Haddi had a past, and he wanted revenge, and it would be completed only when he killed Pramod.

Why Did Haddi Shoot Gaurav Mitra?

Gaurav was the son of Bibek Mitra, Pramod’s secretary. Bibek collapsed at a party that was organized by Inder’s goons, and Gaurav started to blackmail Pramod, blaming him for his father’s death. Gaurav knew that Pramod had illegally occupied lands that traditionally belonged to transgender people. So, Pramod wanted Inder to finish Gaurav off before the court hearing. Here, Haddi came forward to do the dangerous job and gained Pramod’s trust. When Haddi arrived at Mitra’s mansion, cross-dressed as Bibek’s girlfriend, Gaurav let him in. Here, Haddi revealed that his plan was to actually poison Pramod’s son’s drink, but Bibek drank it instead and died. He asked Gaurav to not just file an illegal land acquisition case against Pramod, but also one for a massacre. Haddi couldn’t have gone back to Pramod and Inder without killing Gaurav, as he would lose all credibility. So, he shot Gaurav right below the heart and asked Gaurav to contact him after he recovered. His opportunity for revenge was about to arrive, but Pramod found out about Haddi’s Achilles heel.

Why Did Haddi Want To Kill Pramod? Did ‘Harika’ Become A Politician?

Pramod was a politician in the public eye, and he had carefully curated an image that made people feel that he was a good guy who was being unnecessarily pestered by the trans community. The reality was that he was as evil as they come, and Haddi had seen his evil deeds with his own eyes. Six months ago, Pramod and his men, including Inder, killed several trans people, including Amma, who was Haddi’s mother figure. Haddi was born Hari but had always felt like a woman. He was sexually abused and abandoned at an early age. Later, it was Amma who accepted Hari into her ‘gharana,’ or family, and helped Hari undergo surgery and gain his true form. Thus, Hari became Harika and married a man named Irfan Rizvi. Harika’s whole world came shattering down when Pramod massacred members of her Gharana. That was the day, she planned her revenge. She changed her appearance and started to work for Shakun, who was the closest one available that could get her close to Pramod.

So Hari had become Harika, only to be known as Haddi. She had to leave Irfan for his own safety, but he wasn’t safe anymore. Pramod had kidnapped him. Pramod didn’t quite trust anyone, and after Gaurav recovered from his injury, he ordered a police officer on his payroll to find out about Haddi and his background. He found Harika and Irfan’s marriage certificate and informed Pramod about it. Meanwhile, Haddi got Inder’s men to fight among themselves, after they got to know that Inder pays him ten times the money he pays the rest. All this was done as per Pramod’s instructions, as he wanted Inder and his men dead. Why? Perhaps because Inder had killed Gaurav, after he came back from the hospital, and Pramod didn’t want any loose ends; As far as his goons were concerned, they were amateurs when it came to handling the skeleton trafficking racket.

Haddi thought he was getting close to Pramod by gaining his trust, but the truth was that Pramod was a step ahead. He got Haddi to kill Inder and then wanted him to work for him, dealing in children’s corpses. When Haddi refused, Pramod shot him and also killed Irfan right in front of Haddi’s eyes. Through sheer will, Haddi survived and came back in a completely new avatar. This time with the same trans community that had been helping Pramod mold his innocent image. There was no saving Pramod this time. Harika, or Haddi, was truly invincible, and the time for revenge had come. Pramod was killed, and it must have sent shockwaves across the country. The post-credit scene, where Haddi is seen back in his true form as Harika sitting at a desk, only signifies that violence still creates an unbeatable supremacy, which helps people win elections in this country. After Pramod’s death, Harika must have contested the elections and won because of the trans community’s support. Harika had her revenge, but she had lost Irfan and Amma. Now, she might dedicate her life to the upliftment of the trans community and undoing the wrongs that Pramod had committed against them.