Aayush Sharma
Netflix’s crime thriller series ‘Mandala Murders’ follows the brutal ritualistic killings happening in the quiet town of Charandaspur. To solve the case, a fierce female CIB officer, Rea Thomas (Vaani Kapoor), and a suspended Delhi Police cop, Vikram Singh (Vaibhav Raj Gupta), come together to unravel a massive mystery behind these slayings. However, things get really terrifying when they dig deeper into the matter and find shocking details about a secret society, Aayast Mandal, a group believed to have roots in ancient rituals whose influence still lingers in the shadows of the city’s cramped streets. The title deals with themes of superstitions, ideologies, mythology, trauma, and the horrifying grip of the past on the present. As the ending of the story approaches, Rea and Vikram find themselves in a peculiar position that puts them in grave danger. The duo has to work in tandem so that they can stop the murders and free the town from this curse. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Mandala Murders Recap
The show begins in 1950s Charandaspur, where a group, mostly consisting of women, is performing a ritual. The ritual is about to be finished, and the group feels Mahamani Rukmini is close to fulfilling their dreams with the help of a mysterious device. A few moments later, it is revealed that they are doing an experiment by channeling energies from one form to another by using Aayast Yantra. They are trying to bring their god, Yast, back to earth, and when they do, the Aayastis will be able to avenge the injustices they have been experiencing over the years. As a result, her skilled warriors have been killing people and taking their body parts to create a perfect vessel for their god. However, the people of Charandaspur feel that their town has been experiencing a lot of terrifying stuff because of the Aayastis and plan to kill them. As people reach the doors of the Aayast Sthal, someone from the Aayast clan puts one of the bodies on fire, failing the entire experiment. The failure of the experiment makes Rukmini angry, but one of her subordinates makes her realize that she needs to run away from this place because if she is alive, their dream of making Yast will also stay alive.
At present, a suspended police officer from Delhi, Vikram Singh, is returning to Charandaspur with his father. He grew up in that place and doesn’t have good memories of it. Many years ago, he and his brother, Pawan, were injured after a road accident. While the former suffers a fracture in his hand, his brother dies. The death of his brother ruins his mother’s, Vasudha, mental state, and forces her to do something unusual. She goes to Varuna Forest and takes the help of the Aayast Yantra to bring his son back. The machine has the power to manipulate energies and grant people a wish by sacrificing the thumbs of their right hands. But Vasudha never comes back, and neither does her son. Now, Vikram returns to Charandaspur with his father and meets a press photographer named Abhishek. He notices that Abhishek doesn’t have a thumb and strikes up a conversation with him. As they reach Charandaspur, the cop meets his friend, while his father takes a dip in the Ganges.
But the mood changes when his father comes across the floating remains of Abhishek, the guy they met on the train, and his torso is missing. On the other hand, his hands and legs are stitched to his face. Abhishek’s death takes them by shock, and Vikram helps his friend, who is also a police officer, in solving the case. As he tries to meet Abhishek’s wife at her home, he sees that a lot of people are protesting outside her home because Ananya Bharadwaj, the local politician, has come to meet her, and her rivals have planted the protestors there. Nevertheless, Vikram meets Ananya, and it turns out that she is the older sister of Kavita, the girl he has been dating for a while. Kavita is in a coma after she suffered a massive blow to her head when goons tried to kill Vikram in Delhi.
The murder of Abhishek becomes a big case, and CIB officer Rea Thomas gets pretty interested in it. As a result, after talking to her senior, she reaches Charandaspur to solve the case. Consequently, Rea begins her investigation, and while she tries to solve Abhishek’s murder, she talks to Ananya in her car and tells her about how her campaign manager, Vyankat, might have known Abhishek. While going, Ananya’s driver doesn’t take the usual route to work, and reveals that Vijay Yadav threatened to hurt his daughter if he didn’t help him. A fight takes place between Rea and Vijay’s henchmen. She takes them head-on and beats them. However, she gets distracted by the memories of a young girl, which gives her enemies an edge, and they hit her on the head with a rod. While the brothers visit the Varuna forest, they tell their servant, Birju, to sacrifice her thumb and ask the Aayast Yantra to kill their enemies. However, things don’t work out as planned, and the brothers are killed violently. The news of the double murder shocks the entire city. As the conditions get worse, Rea takes Vikram’s help to solve the case, and in the process, they both get to know shocking details about their own lives that could change their understanding of the entire matter. So, it becomes important for them to uncover the person behind all of this and end the vicious cycle.
Mandala Murders Ending: Who is the Killer?
Even though the investigation leads Rea and Vikram to many confusing areas, both officers are able to find the person behind all the chaos happening in Charandaspur. However, all the killings happening in the town soon turn out to be a part of a bigger conspiracy. When the story of Charandaspur begins in the 1950s, a woman named Rukmini can be seen leading the Aayast Mandal and using the Aayast Yantra to bring their god, Yast, back to earth. They believe that the arrival of Yast will end their sufferings and that the world will be a better place. This means Rukmini is behind the killing that takes place at the time. However, one of the most fatal flaws in her plan was that she thought the people of Charandaspur would be okay with sacrificing their close ones. But when the people realize that the Aayastis have been doing horrifying things in their town, they revolt and are able to stop their experiment. Rukmini escapes, and she believes that the day will come when her dream will come true. This part of the story clearly indicates that the Aayast Mandal behaves like a cult and believes in blind devotion.
Cults believe what their leader says is true, and their god or goddess is bigger than every other deity that people have been worshipping. Rukmini’s belief in Yast reflects the psychological grip cults often have over their followers. Although they couldn’t fully experiment in 1952, a string of killings in the present-day Charandaspur has reignited the rumors of a cult working in the town’s cramped streets. The first victim is Abhishek, whose torso is missing, and a mysterious symbol has been carved on his forehead. Vikram realizes that Abhishek is actually Urmila’s son, and they both used to play with each other when they were young. While Rea and Vikram are trying to solve this murder, another killing rocks the town, and this time the victims are Sujay and Vijay Yadav. Just like Abhishek, the Yadav brothers were missing their hands, and even though his servant, Birju, sees everything, he couldn’t see the killer’s masked face. Sujay is a rival of the local politician Ananya Bharadwaj. When the news of his murder spreads in the media, people believe that it might be Aananya who is responsible for the killings.
Yet, the murders don’t stop as the killer murders innocent people, and one of the people killed in the process is Vikram’s girlfriend, Kavita. Consequently, all the people killed have the same symbol that Abhishek had on his head. Now, for the final and important part, the killer has to have the “blood of a miracle child,” and the killer chooses Vikram to be that guy. The murderer takes him to an undisclosed location and ties him to a chair. Meanwhile, his father calls Aananya, who then calls Rea from Vikram’s number, and asks for help. Rea realizes that a shop close to Vikram’s home has a CCTV camera attached to it, so she checks the feed and realizes that the killer has taken him. She reaches the location and gets betrayed by the police personnel. Now, she is trapped in the same location as Vikram and is trying to find him. On the other hand, Vikram opens his eyes and realizes the person behind the killings is none other than Ananya Bharadwaj, who is the granddaughter of Rukmini Bharadwaj. This means she is an Aayasti and is driven by the same ideology that her grandmother had. She believes that Yast is the answer to all the worries and will cleanse the world of its suffering.
To Ananya, Vikram isn’t just a normal human being but a necessary sacrifice. The reason she chooses him for the last part of her plan is that he survived a bullet attack in the same accident that sent Kavita into a coma. Therefore, she believes that he survived the bullet and that he is a miracle child. Eventually, she feels that Vikram’s blood will complete the task, and their god, Yast, will arrive on earth. But her plan gets foiled when Yast doesn’t accept his blood, and Rea is able to find her. Rea kills Ananya and ends the terrifying ordeal. However, in the end, one of their warriors, captured by the police, is rescued by another Aayasti warrior, and the Aayast Yantra magically starts running. This seems to be a subtle hint at what might happen next and why the story of the Aayast Mandal isn’t over. The ending makes a lot of sense because there’s a lot to play around with the narrative that is so rich and layered. Even though Ananya died, there might be several Aayastis who are capable of running the society on their own terms. Not only do they keep their movement running, but the legacy of the Aayast Mandal will continue to live on.
Who Created the Aayast Yantra and Why?
When the Aayast Yantra is introduced for the first time in ‘Mandala Murders,’ nothing is known about its creation. For years, it has been believed that Aayastis have a machine that can grant wishes. The first instance of someone asking for a wish happens when Vikram’s mother goes to the Aayastis and asks for a wish. She does that after the doctors announced that her second son, Pawan, had died because of the injuries he sustained in a road accident. Although Vikram also hurt himself in the accident, he remains safe. As soon as she takes Pawan to Varuna Forest for the wish, she uses her coin to wish that her child will come back to life. Consequently, everyone who wants a wish does the same, but how did the device come to the Aayastis, and how is Rea attached to this story?
While uncovering the facts of the murders, Rea and Vikram meet Jimmy Khan, who knows about Aayast Mandal because of his grandfather’s knowledge about the same. The latter wrote a lot of information about the Aayast Mandal, and his grandson has been reading it. As the investigation continues, Jimmy gets his hands on a book called Macabre: Memories by Robert McCauley. When Jimmy’s granddaughter becomes one of the victims of the killer, he realizes that his life might be in danger too. He is taken to a hospital, and when he wakes up, he calls Rea to tell her something really important. When Rea reaches the hospital, he tells her to open the aforementioned book, and what she sees shocks her. The book consists of an image of a lady who resembles Rea. The story moves into a flashback, where Nandini and Anant visit Charandaspur. They have been sent to the place by the government to see the site for a nuclear plant. The people accompanying them, including McCauley, tell the duo not to visit the site this late at night.
Additionally, McCauley tells them about another site they can use for the nuclear plant. But the duo refuses, and they go to look at the area. However, they get to know that if they need to make the nuclear plant at the approved site, they would have to destroy the Aayasthal, the place where Aayastis pray or conduct their experiment. When they reach the aforementioned place, they tell Nandini, a particle physicist, to talk to the group. Her task is to let them know that the government will use this for building the nuclear plant, and they should empty the place. Nandini meets Rukmini, who tells her about their god, Yast, and how he chooses his worshippers. But Anant comes in between and blatantly tells them that this place will be destroyed for the construction of the nuclear plant. Rukmini warns them by saying that something bad will happen if they do that. Her conversations with Rukmini put a doubt in Nandini’s mind, and she wants Anant to check another site. Yet, Anant denies her request and destroys the Aayasthal.
Nandini returns to their guest house, while Anant stays for the demolition. As soon as she reaches home, she hears a knock at the door, and when she opens the door, she sees Rukmini standing there with two of her subordinates. Rukmini tells her about the Aayast Granth and how Nandini is related to the Aayast Mandal. The Mahamani of Aayast Mandal reads Aayast Granth and tells that the woman responsible for the destruction of Aayasthal will help the Aayasthali in the creation of Yast. Additionally, she talks about the three characteristics that the aforementioned person will have. First, the person will be working on an energy device. Second, the woman will be pregnant, and third, the woman will be a widow. Although Nandini has the first two characteristics, she smiles when she hears about the woman being a widow.
Nandani is married to Anant, who accompanied her to Charandaspur, so she can’t be the woman from the prophecy. A few moments later, someone knocks at the door and tells Nandini that Anant has died in a road accident. With that news, the prophecy begins to take shape before her eyes. What felt like a superstition suddenly became personal, and at that moment, she realized that she was the woman mentioned in the Aayast Granth. As time progressed, she gives birth to a girl and associates herself with the Aayastis, while making a device that they start calling Aayast Yantra. In the beginning, the sole purpose of the device was to grant wishes and create Yast. However, Rukmini never wanted to stop there. She tells Nandini that Charandaspur will be destroyed because this world needs a reset. When Nandini tries to stop her from continuing the experiment, she kills her. A few moments later, a mob reaches the lab of the Aayastis and tries to forcefully bring the door down. As every Aayasti warrior defends the gate, Nandini, in her last moments, put the mortal vessel of Yast on fire, ruining the entire experiment.
Are These Deaths Killings or Sacrifices?
As Rea and Vikram try to reach the bottom of this mayhem, they come across a devastating truth and realize that these killings might not just be ordinary murders, but human sacrifices. In the 1950s, when they made the Aayast Yantra for the first time, the ritual they followed was fairly simple: a person comes, sacrifices their right thumb, and gets their wish. Meanwhile, at the same time, these murders terrorized the town and made them believe that the Aayasti women are actually witches who do black magic. In modern times, the cycle repeats, and people are granted wishes after sacrificing their thumbs. In one instance, Sujay and Vijay’s mother went to the Aayastis and used the Aayast Yantra to save her children from an attack. The wish is granted, and the Yadav Brothers are saved. However, not everyone can use the device, and if someone needs to use it, they need to have a special kind of coin that has the Aayasti symbol engraved on one side.
For years, this has been the pattern. However, what people don’t realize is that every time someone asks for a wish, someone else dies and their body parts are taken. It may be a coincidence, but when the story of the deaths unfolds, it turns out that the deaths are directly connected with the wishes. This question is answered in a flashback sequence when Rukmini reveals that the price of the wish is not a thumb, but actually the death of a person. The townspeople believed that the wishes granted by the Aayast Yantra come at the cost of a mere thumb, which serves as a symbolic offering. But they fail to understand the spine-chilling pattern: every wish granted is followed by cold-blooded murders. Each wish turns out to be a crucial aspect of the ritual that is being done by the Aayast Mandal, and with each murder, they get one step closer to their ultimate dream. The miracles did happen, but they are eventually followed by death. So, all the deaths happening in Charandaspur seem to be sacrifices rather than just plain, cold-blooded murders.
Does Vikram Find His Missing Mother?
When Vikram returns to Charandaspur, the only thing we know about his mother, Vasudha, is that she went missing after the accident that took his brother’s life. But he never gets to know what actually happened and if his mother is still alive or not. So, apart from solving these murders, he continuously looks for clues about his mother. The first breakthrough he gets is when he learns that Urmila Aunty, who accompanied his mother to the Varuna Forest, is still alive. However, when he meets her, she finds out that she is mentally unstable and doesn’t speak much. Vikram believed that he would get to know something about his mother from her, but she is not in a condition to tell him anything. Hence, he starts to put his mind on the murders that have been happening in Charandaspur. The suspended Delhi Police officer helps Rea in solving the case, but at the back of his mind, he is still thinking about his mother. The reason for that might be his guilt, and knowing that his mother went to the forest because of the accident. Maybe he believes he could have done something more for his mother and put more effort into finding her.
Nevertheless, the town continues to get terrorized by the ritualistic slaying, and the last thing that the killer wants is the blood of a miracle child. As a result, the perpetrator abducts Vikram and takes him to the Aayast experiment lab. That is when he learns that Ananya is behind all of this, and she is the granddaughter of Rukmini Bharadwaj. When Vikram asks her why she is doing all this, she tells him that the answer is way beyond his understanding. However, she promises to give him the answer that he has been waiting for. She calls someone from behind, and it turns out to be Vikram’s mother, Vasudha. When Vasudha initially went to the Aayastis for the wish, she asked for the revival of her child. However, her wish was not granted, and she lost her mind. She follows the man who runs the device and reaches a portion of the lab, only to be seen by Rukmini. She realizes that Vasudha didn’t get her wish because her son, Pawan, died before the wish could have been fulfilled. While they thought of killing her, Rukmini says that they should keep her. As a result, she has been with the Aayastis for a long time.
In the end, when Ananya and her team are trying to transfer Vikram’s blood into Yast’s mortal vessel, something goes wrong, and Yast doesn’t take Vikram’s blood. They realize that the Aayast Yantra is in use and someone’s wish is being granted. It turns out that the wish that Vasudha made in the beginning is now being fulfilled, and is saving Vikram’s life. This is what hope is all about. When superstition and brutality try to force destiny into doing something audacious, it is a quiet act of love that alters everything, including fate. What Aayastis never learnt is that the Aayast Yantra doesn’t answer to control or cruelty, it listens to the purity of intent. That’s why most of the wishes that do get fulfilled were never about killing someone; they always were about protecting or bringing back something lost. For Vikram, it was the closure he needed about his mother and to see her alive, which made his life a little easier.
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