Sonu Sood, in his directorial debut, Fateh, had the intent of doing something original, but the team greatly faltered while shooting the film. Fateh boasts an exceptional cast, with Sood at the helm of affairs playing the titular character, and I must say that he has done a pretty good job when it comes to his performance. The problem with the majority of filmmakers, specifically in the Hindi film industry, is that their ideation and conceptualization lack authenticity, and most of the time, they’re just churning out a bad copy of some popular work. The moment a filmmaker comes and breaks the pattern and gets acceptance from the masses, the others in the horde start imitating them. Being inspired by a good piece of art is not blameworthy, but blatantly copying it is a sin that is unforgivable. Had Fateh made use of the resources available to strengthen the execution, develop better character arcs, and make use of imagination backed by research work to create an engaging story, I think it would have worked.
Every action sequence does not need to be an imitation of the John Wick franchise, and it’s fine if it does not match the scale of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal. I mean, just because it worked does not mean that you need to kill 100 masked people using an axe in every action sequence. Though Sonu Sood’s film makes a decent start, and the writers abstain from putting in cringeworthy elements, it ends up being just another film with wasted potential. Let’s find out what happened in the film and if Fateh Singh was able to save the day.
Spoiler Alert
Why was Nimrit kidnapped?
Nimrit was an ambitious girl from the small town of Moga. Recently, she had learned about a money lending app that gave loans to people without any collateral and with no processing fee. After Nimrit’s loan was processed and she saw that money was actually credited to her account, she started working for the company and became a loan agent. Little did Nimrit know that the app was operated by a group of hackers whose sole intention was to commit cyber fraud and rob people. The moment the app was downloaded on a mobile phone, the hackers got access to all the personal information of that person. Before the people realized that it was a trap, they got entangled in such a mess from where there was no turning back. Through high interest rates and other fraudulent schemes, the hackers made sure that they stole all the money from those innocent people. Almost every second person in Moga had taken a loan through Nimrit, and when she got to know about what was happening, she got a bit worried as she didn’t want the lives of her people to be destroyed because of her. Many times, Nimrit went to Delhi to meet with the people who had created the app, but she wasn’t able to do anything. Then, one day, a man named Sandhu, who was a victim of the loan scam, committed suicide, and that’s when Nimrit decided to go to Delhi once again and try negotiating with the fraudsters. Nimrit was in contact with a woman named Khushi Sharma, who was part of a group that referred to themselves as the ethical hackers. Khushi had hacked into the database of the hackers who were running the loan app, which is why very dangerous people were after her life. The hackers knew that Nimrit was in touch with Khushi, so to extract information from the former, they took her into their custody. When Nimrit did not return after a couple of days, her mother got worried, and she asked Fateh Singh, who was like Nimrit’s brother, to find her. Fateh worked at a dairy farm in Moga, and probably because he didn’t have his own family, he treated the entire village like his own. Fateh decided to go to Delhi and find out about Nimrit, and he promised her mother that he would bring her back.
How had Fateh reached Moga?
The way Fateh went about his business made it very clear that, back in the day, he used to be some kind of special agent. In a flashback sequence, we got to know that Fateh worked for an Indian intelligence agency that didn’t really exist on paper. The purpose of his organization was to eliminate national threats on foreign soil, and another unique thing about the functioning of the agency was that orders were given unofficially, meaning that there was no documentation. In case an agent got caught, the government didn’t take responsibility. Fateh had decided to take voluntary retirement, but before that, he was supposed to execute one last job. Though Fateh successfully completed the mission, he faked his own death and then reached Moga to start afresh and live his days out in peace. For the longest time, even Fateh’s senior, Aayappa sir, didn’t have any clue that the former was alive, but after what happened in Delhi, he realized that Fateh hadn’t died during his last job. The moment Fateh reached Delhi, he found out that a man named Chaddha ran an illegal call center from where the day-to-day business of the hacker group was managed. Fateh killed Chaddha and his people, and that’s when he realized that Chaddha was just a middleman and the mastermind of the entire cyber scam was somebody who was quite influential.
Was Fateh able to find Raza?
Fateh made a couple of discoveries while on the mission to find Nimrit. Firstly, he found out that a corrupt police officer named Nishit Vishwas was helping the hackers and that an affluent businessman named Satya Prakash Kumar was also involved with the entire scam. It was a man named Raza who happened to be an ex-agent of the same intelligence agency where Fateh worked and was the mastermind of the hacker group. Fateh also met Khushi, who helped him in whatever way she could. Khushi had a secret room where she carried out her day-to-day activities. She told Fateh that the hackers wanted to find her, and because of that, they’d taken Nimrit into custody. Before Fateh could find Nimrit, Raza and his team injected malware into the bank servers and sent clone messages to hundreds of people. Once the accounts of the people were emptied, a deep fake video of Fateh, where he called himself the mastermind of the cybercrime, was made public, and the entire police machinery started hunting him along with Satya Praksh’s men. Meanwhile, the hackers started a live stream on the dark web, and they electrocuted Nimrit. Fateh saw the live stream and that’s when something changed inside the man. Up until then, he was restraining himself, acting cautiously, but after that, there was no stopping him. Satya Prakash tried his level best to use his resources and influence to hunt down an unhinged Fateh, but he wasn’t able to do so. Satya Prakash abducted Khushi, but before he could kill her, Fateh arrived at the scene and took the situation under control. Fateh first killed Satya Prakash, and then he went after Raza. Fateh literally annihilated an entire army before he confronted Raza and shot him dead.
What’s next for Fateh and Khushi?
Fateh took revenge for Nimrit’s death, but he knew that no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to heal from within. He had to live with the fact that he wasn’t able to save Nimrit’s life. Fateh decided to go back to Moga and open his own dairy farm. Fateh and Khushi met for one last time, and the latter told him that she was planning to leave India and settle in London. Both Fateh and Khushi liked each other, but they never explicitly spoke about their feelings. The moment Khushi got up and left, Fateh got an epiphany of sorts. He had lost a lot in his life, and more often than not, he didn’t have any other option apart from dealing with what was thrown his way. But this time, he could stop Khushi; he could tell her how much he loved her and that’s what he did. Khushi was more than happy to be with Fateh, as she knew that he was the kind of man with whom she could spend her entire lifetime. At the end of the film, there came a twist, and we saw a man holding a gun aimed at Fateh. The film left us on a cliffhanger, and we didn’t come to know who he was and why he was after Fateh’s life. I believe that the assassin could be somebody whom Fateh had wronged back in the day. Fateh had been a part of many deadly missions, and he dealt with extremely dangerous people on an everyday basis. Fateh and his intelligence team had killed a lot of people, and probably, this hitman was somebody who had come back to take revenge. Though there hasn’t been an official announcement of a part 2, I believe that the makers have every intention of continuing the story of Fateh Singh and Khushi Sharma.
