“Jogi,” the 2022 drama, has been written and directed by Ali Abbas Zafar and has been co-written by Sukhmani Sadana. The narrative follows the protagonist Jogi, played by Diljit Dosanjh, and his quest to save his people from the hatred that was intending to burn down each and everybody that came its way.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
It was a usual morning for Harpal Singh and his family. The morning clutter could be heard from far away. Everybody came to the dining table to have breakfast together, as they usually did. It was Harpal Singh’s last day at his office. He was getting retired, so there was a little ceremony kept in his office to commemorate the event. But Jogi (Harpal Singh’s son) and his mother urged him to return on time, as it was Prab’s birthday. Prab was Jogi’s nephew and the son of his sister, Heer. Jogi accompanied his father, and they both got on a bus together, while on their way to work. Something didn’t feel right and the passengers on the bus were looking at the two Sikh men with suspicion. Suddenly, they started abusing Jogi and his father. They stopped the bus and threw them off of it. Jogi couldn’t understand what was happening. Why did the people abuse him for no rhyme or reason? They said that his mistake was that he was Sikh. Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, the two bodyguards of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had her. They said that they were taking revenge for the operation Blue Star, which was conducted by the prime minister earlier that year. The nation was enwrapped in bigotry and hate. The perpetrators were caught, but the people needed somebody to take out their anger. The political powers once again became bystanders who not only let the vengeance unfold but also aided it. Sikhs were killed and tortured. Their houses were burnt, and their lives took a setback. Collective blame was put on the community, and orders were given to kill anyone wearing a turban. Jogi came back to his home but couldn’t find anybody. His brother-in-law had already been killed by the rioters, but somehow the other members of the family were safe.
Meanwhile, Tejpal Arora, a councilor from Trilokpuri Constituency, desperately wanted a ticket for the upcoming parliamentary election. He knew that to make his bosses happy, he would have to get his hands dirty and orchestrate an ethnic cleansing. The national capital was burning, and Tejpal Arora was ready to add more fuel to it. He went to Trilokpuri Police Station in East Delhi and ordered Inspector Kuldeep to bring all the criminals in the prison cell to him. Tejpal had a plan. He was releasing each and every convict from jail. He offered them a bounty for killing every Sikh. He said that for killing commoners, they would get one thousand per head, and if the Sikh turned out to be an influential person, then the bounty would be increased to a sum of five thousand. The criminals were provided with all the arms and ammunition they would need and then released from the Trilokpuri Police Station. Inspector Rawinder Chautala was apprehensive about the plan. He told Tejpal that these were hardened criminals who shouldn’t be released at any cost. But Tejpal asked him to see the bigger picture. He gave him the voters’ list of the area, which had the names of every citizen residing there. The names of the Sikh families were already marked in red. He was ordered to slaughter everybody and show his allegiance. Rawinder didn’t know what to do. His conscience was coming in the way of his duty. There was one more aspect to his dilemma, though: his friend, Jogi, was also on the list. He knew he had to save his childhood friend at any cost.
An Escape Plan
Jogi, his family, and the other Sikhs were hiding in a gurdwara. Rawinder met them and told them that the only option they had was to somehow escape to Punjab, as it was the safest place for them at that point in time. Rawinder took Jogi aside and told him to leave with his family, as the probability of saving all the people hiding in the gurdwara was negligible. But Jogi was not ready to leave his own people behind. He was adamant that either he would go with everybody, or he wouldn’t go at all. Rawinder had a plan. Kaleem Ansari, a childhood friend of both Rawinder and Jogi, was the owner of truck load service. Rawinder asked him to build a secret vault inside one of his trucks. It was decided that the truck would be filled with arms and ammunition, and the area where the vault was would be properly covered, so that nobody would have any suspicion. Kaleem built the box and arranged the arms in a couple of hours. Jogi and Rawinder went back to the gurdwara and filled the box with as many aged people and children as they could. A number of people were left behind, but they had no option other than to leave and hope that they would be alive when they returned. But there was another obstacle. The truck didn’t have any fuel. Kaleem had told them to get the tank filled once they were done loading the people from the nearest gas station. Tejpal Arora had already emptied every gas station and taken all the oil and diesel to his farmhouse, from where the rioters were being provided with all the resources. There was no option left for Rawinder and Jogi. They had to go to the lion’s den and try to come back alive with the fuel. They reached the farmhouse of Tejpal Arora and were shocked to see the scale of the preparation being done there. There was a lot of inquiry before the two men were given tanks of diesel. When they were almost about to escape the premises, once again, they were stopped at the main entrance. Rawinder was being called back, as Tejpal had an important message to deliver. He told him on the phone that lane number six in Trilokpuri was to be burnt down completely, as an officer had told him that a lot of Sikhs were hiding there. This officer was Lali Katyal, another childhood friend of Jogi, Rawinder, and Kaleem, who, for some reason, wanted to take revenge on Jogi. Rawinder knew that they had no other option than to burn lane no. 6, which was where Jogi lived. So, they arranged for a few corpses from a nearby lane and put them in the houses, and then burned the whole neighborhood down. Jogi was distraught. He had cut his hair, and now he saw his house burning in front of his own eyes. But he realized that he needed to make that sacrifice in order to save his people. The truck was again stopped at the Karnal Checkpoint, and the toll officer demanded a thorough search. Rawinder and Jogi entered into a scuffle with them and managed to cross the checkpoint after a lot of struggles. The toll officer informed Tejpal and others about the truck, though he didn’t know the names of Rawinder and Jogi, which is why there was still a bleak hope that they could evade the suspicion.
Ending Explained – Why Did Lali Katiyal Want To Kill Jogi? Is Jogi Dead Or Alive?
Lali Katyal had a sister named Kammo, who was in love with Jogi. Both of them wanted to tell Lali about their relationship, but they weren’t able to find the opportune moment to do so. Lali himself found it out when his sister was pregnant. He asked her to get married to the man of his choice, but Kammo was adamant. She told his elder brother to forgive her and his friend Jogi. But Lali couldn’t. Kammo committed suicide, and ever since, a rift had been created between Lali and Jogi. Lali was waiting for that opportunity to get revenge on Jogi. That is why he went and reported about the Sikhs and told Tejpal that Rawinder was involved with Jogi. Tejpal told Rawinder to bring him his friend. Rawinder knew that he didn’t have a lot of options. He shifted the Sikhs to a Muslim shrine near Kaleem’s house and then went and told Tejpal that they were hiding in the gurdwara. Lali saw through his plan, as he had come to know that the truck which had escaped the other day belonged to Kaleem. Lali reached the shrine with the whole force, and the Sikhs were forced to run from there. Tejpal was under a lot of pressure, and he wanted to show his superiors that he could deliver. Lali finally found the place where Jogi and other Sikhs were hiding. He had a confrontation with his old friend. Jogi tells him that he never intended to cause any harm to his sister and that she died because her own older brother was not ready to understand her. Lali has a change of heart and doesn’t tell anybody about their hideout. Lali had realized that vengeance had taken over him, and Jogi didn’t have any ill intentions after all.
Rawinder asked Jogi to hide everybody in the Trilokpuri police station itself, as the probability of Tejpal searching the station was almost negligible. So, the Sikhs hid in the police station, and Rawinder and Jogi went back to the doctor’s place where they had left Daler, one of the Sikhs who had been injured by a bullet. But Tejpal’s men had already found him. They took Rawinder and Jogi, both as hostages. They were taken to Tejpal, who sat just outside the Trilokpuri police station to interrogate them, unaware of the fact that all the Sikhs were actually hiding in the station itself. Tejpal refuses to tell Jogi anything. The politician loses his temper and shoots both Jogi and Daler. Jogi’s sister, seeing her brother being shot, screams from inside the police station. Tejpal came to know that everybody was hiding inside. He ordered his men to burn everybody alive and he left the scene. But the army arrived at the Trilokpuri Police Station just in time as Lali had informed them about the Sikhs hiding there. Jogi had died in the end, but he was able to save the lives of several others who would always be indebted to the sacrifice he made. At the evil hour, when the entire nation was soaked in hate, it was the bonds of friendship and love that made sure that we were able to overcome every obstacle and make the sunshine over the looming darkness.
“Jogi” is a 2022 Drama Thriller film directed by Ali Abbas Zafar.
