A Thursday

<p>Naina Jaiswal, who teaches at the Little Tots in (part of ), had been on leave for three weeks for an unknown reason. The school is in front of the property owned by Rohit Mirchandani, Naina’s fiance, where Rohit lives. Parents drop off their children, and Naina asks one parent to send a cake since the next day is their daughter Niharika’s birthday. The parent asks if their driver can deliver the cake to the school. Everyone leaves, and Naina snaps; she calls the police station and tells them that she has 16 children as hostages. Niharika’s driver arrives with a cake and Savitri, the helper, returns for her phone; both are also taken hostage. The police suspect it is a hoax, but Naina fires a shot. Catherine Alvarez contacts her, but Naina says that she will only negotiate with Officer Javed Khan. Javed is brought to the scene, and she tells him that she will free one child for every demand he meets. Her first demand is for a transfer of to her account. Catherine and Javed had a romantic history, and are incompatible when working together. Catherine does not listen to Javed, and tries to send armed police inside. Naina kills Aakash, one of the children, in alphabetical order, as she had said. The places Javed in charge and assigns Catherine to do research. Naina’s second demand is to speak to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Maya Rajguru talks to Naina on the phone, and Naina urges her to meet her in person. Naina then tells Javed to find Rakesh Mathur and Charan Kumar, who she last knew were working at a school in (a Mumbai suburb) and bring them to her. The police find Rakesh, but are unable to locate Charan. No one knows what Naina is up to, and Javed and his team have no choice but to agree to her demands because the children are still hostages. During a background check, Catherine learns that Naina has been taking antidepressants and seeing a psychologist since she was 16 years old. She searches Naina’s house and finds receipts for medication prescribed by Dr. Juneja. Catherine contacts Dr. Juneja, and Javed gets hold of Naina’s mother Kusum, whose revelation comes across as a brutal shock to Javed : Naina was raped when she was 16 years old, and Javed and Catherine were then officers in charge of the case. They paid little attention to Naina’s case, since they were pursuing a high-profile case to gain recognition. After begging them to help for two years, Kusum became resigned to their indifference; in the present, she blames Javed for being the root cause of the drama due to his and Catherine’s inaction. Rajguru decides to meet Naina in person, accompanied only by Javed. Naina brings up the , which become effective in 2012 to protect children under the age of 18. Naina asks the prime minister why there is no protection for people over 18, and demands that her rapists face the death penalty. Rajguru tells her that legislation is a complex task that requires time, but her rapists are found and imprisoned. Naina then says that the child she supposedly killed is actually alive. Although the police could not find Charan Kumar, Naina reveals, in a twist, that he is the family driver who brought Niharika’s birthday cake. He held Niharika’s hand (arousing Naina’s fear that he would rape the child as well), and Naina asked Niharika’s mother to send him with the cake so she could take him hostage; he was her rapist, while Rakesh held her hands. Naina shoots Charan, and the commandos enter the school and arrest her. Rohit salutes her, referring back to a conversation they had where he believes one should only salute people who deserve it. While Naina is being transported to prison, Rajguru brings up the issue of capital punishment in parliament. Seven months later, as she is teaching a class in prison, Naina picks up a newspaper, sees the headline about capital punishment, and smiles. began on 12 March 2021, and in July of that year. On the website , 13% of 8 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.9/10. Cyril of gave the film a rating of four out of five and wrote, “Yami Gautam’s is the kind of thriller that has been missing from Indian screens for a while.” Renuka Vyavahare of rated it three out of five and wrote, “Despite a rather predictable backstory, redeems itself with its powerful emotional arc and social commentary in the latter half. It touches upon a relevant issue that will resonate with women across the globe.” Pradeep Menon of gave the film a rating of 2.75 out of five and wrote, ” strives to be urgent, relevant and cool, but succeeds only partially, because it stops to make a point far too often.” of rated the film 1.5 out of five and wrote, “The chief problem with Yami Gautam’s film is that we do not take any of this seriously, whether it is Naina brandishing a gun, or snarling and cooing at her hostages.” The to contains twenty-one compositions used in the , curated and composed by Rooshin Dalal and Kaizad Gherda.</p>