Aahana Swrup
In ‘Killer Soup,’ the Indian crime comedy show, Inspector Hassan finds himself on a mission to unravel Swathi’s complicated web of cons and lies. After Swathi’s husband, Prabhakar “Prabhu” Shetty, learns about his wife’s secret affair, he attempts to kill her in a fit of rage. As a result, Swathi and her secret lover, Umesh, end up accidentally becoming catalysts in Prabhu’s death. However, the couple decide to deal with the problem in a unique way and mess with Umesh’s face enough to allow him to pass as Prabhu after an acid attack.
Thus, unbeknownst to everyone, Prabhu Shetty dies and is replaced with his near-lookalike Umesh. Consequently, as the police circle the Shetty family, they believe they are looking for Umesh, Prabhu’s masseur and the prime suspect for attacking/blackmailing the man. However, one overeager officer, Thupali, catches on to the truth, only to fall down a cliff when attempting to unveil Swathi’s crimes. Still, following his death, the man continues to haunt his superior officer, Hassan, often guiding him in solving The Shetty Case. For the same reason, viewers must have their questions about Thupali’s character and intriguing posthumous storyline. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Officer Thupali’s Inopportune Fall
Even before Prabhu’s death, Swathi watches someone else meet their demise. Kiran Nadar, a private investigator, works a case for Prabhu after the latter receives anonymous blackmail letters threatening to reveal the embezzlement fraud the man committed against his older brother Arvind Shetty, a feared name across Mainjur. As a result, Nadar started shadowing Prabhu’s wife, Swathi and learned about her extramarital affair with Umesh. Nonetheless, before the PI can share his findings, his car gets run over by a truck in an empty colony.
Although the death would have been written off as a roadside accident, Thupali, the officer at the crime scene, realizes that a camera is missing from the victim’s car. As such, he concludes that someone was present at the time of Nadar’s death and is likely a suspect in his intentional murder. The same leads him to Prabhu Shetty, the last caller on Nadar’s phone. However, by the time Thupali calls the number, Prabhu has already died. Yet, Thupali remains oblivious to the same due to his wife’s assurances.
Still, Thupali decides to look into the case further and learns about Nadar’s connection to Prabhu. Even though Swathi doesn’t know about Prabhu’s blackmail problems, she manages to spin a tale to get the police off Umesh’s scent, who is the obvious perpetrator. Nonetheless, her other lie, about an ambush acid attack, ensures that the police remain in their orbit to catch Prabhu’s attacker.
Therefore, the further Thupali investigates the ordeal, the closer he gets to the truth. Since Swathi and Umesh never planned for something like this to happen, their attempts to cover their tracks are amateurish in the beginning. Moreover, their initial crime was already hasty enough that it could unravel the entire web with one well-placed tug. Thus, after some snooping, Thupali realizes that Umesh is blackmailing Prabhu.
Furthermore, he spots a woman in a Burka fleeing from Umesh’s flat and decides to follow after her. The woman, Swathi, unwittingly leads Thupali right to Prabhu’s haphazard grave, where she attempts to bury more evidence of her relationship with Umesh. Thus, after glimpsing at Prabhu’s dead body, all the pieces fall into place for Thupali, who realizes the scope of Swathi and Umesh’s grand plan.
Nevertheless, Thupali can’t find a signal on his phone to contact Hassan and reveal the entire truth to him. Consequently, his desperation leads him to a high point in the mountains, the Suicide Point. Yet, Swathi finds him there, leading the rookie cop to become jumpy and slip down the cliff. Thus, Thupali, after collecting all the evidence, dies in his tragic overeagerness before he can reveal Swathi’s ploy. His death also allows Swathi to pull herself together and commit to her conniving ways to ensure no one else figures her out so easily.
Thupali’s Persistent Ghost
Although Thupali dies in the second episode, his character never quite leaves the narrative. News of the cop’s death reaches his colleagues two weeks after the incident. While others are relatively devastated by the news, Hassan undergoes the unique trauma of losing his newest young Officer. Despite his inexperience and naivety, Hassan saw the potential in Thupali. As such, he’s sad to watch it fade.
Nevertheless, shortly after Thupali’s death, the dead cop returns to Hassan while he’s in a drunken state one fateful night. Donning his soaked yellow raincoat and a deathly pale complexion, Thupali often accompanies Hassan as a spirit by the latter’s side. Nevertheless, Hassan is the only one who can see the apparition and hear his ghostly words.
Although Hassan is taken aback at first, he allows Thupali’s ghost to guide him in his investigation. Yet, Thupali can’t spell everything out for the superior officer. Instead, he can only converse in cryptic poetry taken from his well-loved and read book, “The Stoic Heart.” Nonetheless, the book’s poetry seems to hold special insight into the case, imparting hints to Hassan about what his next move should be.
Thus, a crazed Hassan begins studying The Stoic Heart with vehemence, regularly referring to it to figure out his future plans. Likewise, whenever he sees Thupali’s apparition at a place, Hassan realizes he’s on the right path. Therefore, even after death, Thupali manages to aid in the police’s investigation in his ghostly form.
The cop isn’t back from the dead since he’s never able to hand answers over to Hassan despite having them. Instead, his soul is stuck in the mortal realm, unable to move on until his last case is solved. For the same reason, once Swathi and Umesh’s crimes are revealed in the end, Thupali’s ghost can be seen on top of a bus headed toward an unknown location. Other passengers on the bus include Swathi and Umesh, who both recently met their ends, further confirming that the bus is a metaphor for the souls’ journey into the afterlife.
Read More: Killer Soup: Is the Netflix Show Based on Real Life?
