“Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare” is a true crime documentary on Catfishing. We live in a world where nobody can live without the internet. With the use of the internet comes online frauds and scams. Today, it has become easier to find love online through dating apps and social media sites. While this is convenient, and many people have found their true love, it also becomes a breeding ground for people wanting to commit crimes like catfishing. People ignore all the red flags because they are vulnerable, especially when finding love.
In this documentary, we hear of one such case. It starts with Kirat accepting a Facebook friend request after seeing her cousin as a mutual friend to a stranger named Bobby. One thing leads to another; the next thing you know, Kirat and Bobby start dating. For over nine years, Kirat has been in a relationship with Bobby until one day, when the person catfishing Kirat comes clean. Unfortunately, the criminal’s identity shocks Kirat and the real Bobby.
This article contains spoilers.
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare (2024) Documentary Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The documentary begins with the story of Kirat Assi. In London in 2011, Kirat had a busy social life and hosted a segment in a radio program. One day, Kirat gets a friend request from someone named Bobby. The story starts in 2011 when Kirat bumps into Bobby at Brighton. During this time, Kirat was in a long-term relationship and had befriended Bobby several months back. After talking for a few months, this was the first time Kirat met Bobby. When Kirat talks to Bobby in the club, Bobby does not seem to recognize Kirat. Since Bobby is with his friends, Kirat does not want to embarrass him, so she leaves.
How does the dynamic between Kirat and Bobby evolve?
Kirat was born and raised in West London, and her parents were born in Kenya. In Kenya, the Sikh community is small and close. It is so close that everyone knows each other’s business. When Bobby sends a friend request to Kirat, she accepts it only because their mutual friends are Kirat’s cousin Simran and Simran’s ex-boyfriend JJ. Meanwhile, Bobby is happily married and is from the Kenyan Sikh community. Over time, Bobby and Kirat become good online friends.
Eventually, Bobby’s life started to fall apart as Bobby’s wife cheated on him, and Bobby filed for divorce. At the same time, Kirat has been dating someone since 18. However, Kirat’s partner gets cold feet and disappears whenever they discuss marriage. Ever since Kirat was a little girl, she has dreamt of getting married and having children. That is how Kirat’s upbringing instilled those qualities in her.
The Sikh community also pressured Kirat to get married, and Kirat started to share all her concerns with Bobby. For the next few months, Bobby didn’t contact Kirat. Out of the blue, one day, Bobby messages Kirat, saying he is engaged to a woman named Sanj. Even though Kirat and Bobby have not met, Bobby and Sanj invite Kirat to their wedding.
Because of family circumstances, Kirat does not attend their wedding. One day, Sanj posts a photo of Bobby saying he had been shot in Kenya several times and is fighting for his life. Since Simran is in Kenya, Kirat gets updates about Bobby’s health from Simran. Even though they were only online friends, Kirat genuinely cared about Bobby. By this time, Kirat and Bobby had been friends for three years.
One day, Simran calls and informs Kirat that the witness protection agency has taken Bobby to New York. Soon after, Bobby messages Kirat from a new Facebook profile and says he is going against the orders of witness protection officers to chat with Kirat. From the hospital, Bobby tells Kirat that his marriage to Sanj is also falling apart. When Kirat reaches out to Sanj, Sanj says she doesn’t want to do anything with Bobby.
Kirat realizes Bobby does not have anybody to lean on. So she gives Bobby moral support. Meanwhile, Kirat and her partner of 18 years break up for good. Even though Bobby is going through a lot, Bobby is there for Kirat during her break-up. Soon, Bobby introduces his cousins and friends to Kirat online. Among them are two people: Yashvir, a jokester, and Rajvir, a medic like Bobby.
What are the difficulties and uncertainties Bobby and Kirat face?
Sometime after that, Bobby expresses that he loves Kirat. At this time, Kirat is unsure whether she or Bobby are in the right headspace to start a relationship. However, soon after Bobby expresses his love, he begins to show symptoms of a stroke. After that, Rajvir shares a picture of Bobby in the hospital. One Valentine’s Day, Bobby sends a romantic message to Kirat, and from that day, they are officially in a relationship. Since Bobby’s vocal cords were damaged, Kirat would send voice notes, and Bobby would respond with messages. Like any normal relationship, they start to learn more about each other.
Soon, Bobby and Kirat start talking about wanting to have babies together. Very quickly, as Bobby and Kirat talk on Facebook, Bobby uses a sketching feature to propose to Kirat. After that, Bobby and Kirat start talking about their living arrangements, weddings, rings, and everything related to their marriage. Despite that, the proposal is unofficial as their families have not met each other.
From Kirat’s side, only Kirat’s mother knew, as Bobby did not want to tell Kirat’s father, as Bobby wanted to meet the future father-in-law in person and break the news. From Bobby’s side, he thought it best to introduce Kirat to his cousins first. Later, Kirat is added to the cousin’s Facebook group. From texts, they now move to conversing on Skype. After speech therapy, Bobby was able to whisper or grunt on calls.
What is Kirat’s decision regarding Bobby’s child?
After all this, Bobby messages Kirat one day, saying Sanj is having Bobby’s child. It seems Bobby and Sanj slept together just before Bobby got together with Kirat. During such time, Kirat leans on Simran for support. It looks like Simran is on Bobby’s side and asks Kirat to trust Bobby.
So Kirat reaches out to Bobby’s cousin Kiran for support. In the end, Kirat is okay to accept Bobby’s child but does not want to do anything with Sanj. Furthermore, Kirat gives Bobby the choice of being with Sanj or staying with her. Now, Bobby chooses to continue his relationship with Kirat. Soon, Rajvir gives Kirat hope that Bobby may visit her, but because of the procedures, Bobby is not allowed to leave yet.
Since Kirat wanted to feel closer to Bobby, Kirat asked Bobby to send over something that was his. Soon, Bobby sends over his t-shirt with Simran. Soon, things started to get worse for Kirat as Bobby was becoming sensitive, and Kirat had to walk on eggshells. Things escalate as Bobby begins to control Kirat’s life completely.
To prove her loyalty to Bobby, Kirat also quits her radio show. But Bobby knew how to win over Kirat, so Bobby would constantly send flowers and presents. The witness protection program has concluded, and Bobby has promised to come to the UK. During this time, Kirat’s grandmother passes away. So, Bobby promises to be there for Kirat’s grandmother’s funeral, but he never shows up.
Why does Kirat get suspicious that Bobby might be leading a double life?
Finally, Bobby arrives to meet Kirat. Unfortunately, Bobby needs time to settle in before he sees Kirat. In Kensington, Bobby has booked a hotel stay. By now, Kirat is getting sick of Bobby’s excuses, so Kirat visits his hotel. Unfortunately, the receptionist says nobody named Bobby is staying at the hotel. Confused, Kirat calls Simran, who tries to calm down Kirat.
As Kirat is on a call with Simran, Bobby calls and asks Kirat not to surprise him like that. Annoyed, Kirat has Bobby’s UK postal address, so Kirat rushes there. Unfortunately, Kirat cannot find Bobby’s house. When Kirat calls Bobby, he says he can’t meet her, but Bobby can see Kirat from the building. Kirat realizes that Bobby is probably leading a double life and is still with Sanj. So Kirat finds Sanj’s number online and calls her. Sanj immediately asks if the person calling is Bobby.
When Kirat was doing the family tree for Bobby, she came across a postal address for Sanj’s parent’s house, so Kirat drove there. After some time, Sanj walks out of the house and passes right in front of Kirat’s car. Overwhelmed with emotions, Kirat hires a private investigator to find Bobby’s address. In 24 hours, the investigator finds Bobby’s address, and Kirat reaches Bobby’s house. There is confusion now as Kirat tells Bobby he is a liar for not recognizing her.
By now, Bobby and his wife Sanj are scared as Kirat knows all their names and how Sanj was in her parents’ house. As Bobby and Kirat talk, Kirat gets a call from Bobby, so Kirat assumes it’s Sanj from inside the house. Kirat calls Simran and says Bobby denies everything, so Bobby interjects. On the call, Simran says to Bobby that Kirat is confused. When Kirat takes the call, Simran asks her to leave the house.
Who is catfishing Kirat?
Once again, Kirat returns and says she has presents for Bobby’s son. So Bobby warns Kirat to leave and decides to call the police. Once Kirat is back, she gets a message from Bobby saying he is sorry as Kirat has found out the truth. In anger, Kirat abuses Bobby. Simran says Bobby has filed a police complaint, and hearing this, Kirat wants to file a police complaint as well. However, Simran stops Kirat from doing that. Soon, Simran arrives at Kirat’s house and says she is pretending to be Bobby and to everyone else, Kirat has been talking to online. When Kirat questions Simran about the reason for doing that, Simran has no answer.
When Kirat accuses Simran of ruining the best years of her life, Simran says Kirat destroyed her own life. After that, Simran messages Bobby, apologizing for everything, and says she needs counseling. Furthermore, Simran requests that Bobby not involve the cops. However, Bobby refuses to hide anything from the police.
Soon, Kirat gets a call from the Brighton police, informing Kirat about Bobby’s complaint. The cops ask Kirat to file a police complaint in London as well. When Kirat visits the police station, the police refuse to acknowledge that Kirat is a victim of a crime. The police believe only Bobby and Sanj are the victims. So Kirat takes matters into her own hands and starts collecting ten years’ worth of evidence. Soon, all the profiles Simran has created start to disappear.
In retrospect, Kirat realizes that the day she met Bobby in Brighton should have been her red flag. Sadly, Kirat also realizes that the baby photos Simran had sent using a fake Bobby’s identity already existed on the actual Bobby’s Facebook page. Kirat’s mother realizes that since Simran knew if Kirat’s father would know about Bobby, he would visit Bobby’s family in Kenya. Hence, Simran ensured Kirat’s father did not know about the relationship. Ultimately, Simran catfished Kirat for almost nine years. In 2020, Kirat took civil action against Simran. In 2021, Simran apologized to Kirat and paid compensation.
The most surprising thing for Bobby was to see the enormous file filled with evidence that Kirat had collected. At the time of the documentary’s filming, Simran had not been charged or prosecuted by the police. Furthermore, Simran declined to do the interview, saying all this happened when she was in school and calling these damaging accusations. Meanwhile, Kirat continues to spread awareness of the lack of a legal framework to secure justice, especially with online crimes.
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare (2024) Documentary Final Thoughts:
Documentaries, especially about online crimes, have become popular because the consumption of the internet and its services is increasing every day. In this true crime documentary, we deal with Kirat’s case, where she was catfished for over nine years by someone Kirat knows. It is scary to let strangers you talk to online get close to you. In such a situation, Kirat’s cousin crosses all boundaries and commits a crime for nine years.
The documentary could have easily been expanded into a docu-series, as it leaves viewers wanting to delve deeper into why Simran did what she did, a mystery that remains unclear until the very end. It also would have provided more insight into why Kirat overlooked the many red flags, particularly during her initial encounter with Bobby in Brighton.
The documentary does a great job of exploring cultural nuances, especially the pressure Kirat faced to marry and have children, which likely contributed to her lowered defenses and vulnerability to manipulation. Tragically, because Kirat’s own cousin was behind the crime, she had access to personal information a stranger wouldn’t, making the deception even more insidious.
One crucial, yet understated, message in the documentary is the importance of being mindful of what we share online. Bobby’s identity was completely stolen, turning him into a pawn in this complex scheme. The film serves as a timely reminder that we must approach anything or anyone we encounter online with caution. “Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare” is an urgent wake-up call about the dangers of digital interactions and the vulnerability that comes with oversharing on the internet.
