A vital flaw in India’s homegrown mass storytelling ecosystem—and, by extension, the conceptual “pan-India” movie—is its chronic failure to fuse the largeness of the medium with the completeness and conviction of intent. The constant tussle between scale and storytelling often leads to a lopsided result: either the runtime can’t do justice to the narrative, or the narrative never fully realizes itself, no matter how much time it’s given.
In that regard, Sekhar Kammula’s crime drama “Kuberaa” earns the precedent it sets. Beneath its seemingly straightforward hero-worshipping surface, the film sketches the plight of India’s poor as nothing more than disposable vessels—ghosts of the economy, manipulated through laundering and stripped of agency.
In dignifying beggary and reassigning worth to those historically rendered invisible, Kuberaa delves into a vicious system built on hunger, benami shell fronts, and the political underworld of electoral bonds—making its resonance in post-Modi India all the more stinging. What’s most persuasive in the writing (co-penned by Kammula and Chaitanya Pingali) is the deeply intuitive treatment of faith and religion.
The film positions temples, mosques, and dargahs not as battlegrounds for identity but as sacred kitchens of survival—spaces where belief is tethered to food, not power. Here, faith becomes an act of endurance, not ideology. God, then, is the only character respected equally by both the good poor and the bad rich—a binary that reveals how divinity, too, cannot reconcile the brutal gap between dignity and dominion.
The film’s embrace of magical realism injects it with grace and texture, particularly during its quieter, offbeat turns. What elevates it further is Dhanush’s unusually grounded and feel-good performance as Deva. A touch of Gump lingers, but Deva remains entirely his own—an instantly recognizable man who somehow also becomes an ideal ‘mass’ hero. It’s Dhanush’s restraint that saves the film from slipping into exploitative, Atlee-style emotional overload.
Unfortunately, not all the casting hits its mark. Jim Sarbh, the film’s marquee addition from the Hindi film industry, is reduced to a generic villain archetype. Watching him play a ruthless, one-note tycoon feels like watching Tilda Swinton attempt an Amrish Puri cosplay. Nagarjuna Akkineni fares no better, trapped in a role too underwritten to carry the weight of Deepak’s moral journey. These flaws are exacerbated by clumsy scene-building and an undercooked emotional arc, further soured by a cringeworthy ‘funeral’ dance sequence that looks too garish even to go viral.
Still, “Kuberaa” leans into its campiness and high-stakes imagination to build a watchable, even stirring, political drama. For all its narrative fumbling, it lands more punches than it pulls. Here’s our attempt to decode it.
Kuberaa (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Neeraj Mitra, a powerful and ambitious businessman in Mumbai, discovers a rare oil reserve hidden in the Bay of Bengal. Eager to convert it into a source of wealth, influence, and political leverage, he plans a secret mission with his business tycoon father, backed by top politicians. The oil rig workers are killed in a staged explosion that same night to accelerate the process before it draws public attention.
Who does Neeraj recruit?
To execute the plan, Neeraj turns to Deepak—a sincere ex-C.B.I. officer currently imprisoned for refusing to comply with systemic corruption. Disillusioned and left with no choice, Deepak agrees to assist. Though he doesn’t share Neeraj’s greed, his circumstances force him into complicity. Deepak assembles a group of beggars from across India to quietly launder the money through shell companies in Mumbai. The laundering scheme involves transferring one lakh crores—fifty thousand in white, the rest in black—using beggars as benami fronts. Neeraj’s actual plan, however, is far more sinister: to eliminate the beggars once their part is done.
What happens to the recruited beggars?
One of the chosen is Deva Kallam, a kind-hearted, naïve man from Tirupati. We meet him as he chases a car that hit one of his fellow beggars and fled. When municipal workers refuse to handle the corpse, Deva cremates his friend alone using discarded logs and cheap oil from a plastic bottle. Yet, his outlook remains life-affirming.
That night, he’s picked for the operation. Before leaving, he asks a fellow beggar what day it is. When told it’s Monday, he bows before a mural of Shiva begging to Annapurna painted on a nearby wall. Alongside him, three others are recruited: a pregnant woman named Khushboo, a North-Eastern man named Dibya, and a Malayali named Khelu. They are taken to Mumbai and housed in one of Neeraj’s guest houses, where they’re regularly brutalized by Robo, a henchman Neeraj uses to oversee Deepak’s end of the deal.
The beggars are groomed to mimic elite businesspeople. Each day, transfers are executed through the shell companies they now ‘own.’ Once a transfer is complete, they’re taken to sea—where Robo throws them off the ship and kills them. When Khelu is murdered on the first night, Deepak is horrified and pleads with Neeraj to stop. Neeraj coldly refuses, reminding Deepak that his future hinges entirely on Neeraj’s decisions.
Who does Deva meet at the railway station?
When Deva’s biometric scan is due and his elimination nears, he grows suspicious—especially since Khelu and Dibya have already “disappeared.” Realizing the danger, Deva escapes from Robo and flees. This botched biometric scan puts Deepak on edge.
Deva reaches a railway station in Kalyan, where he meets Sameera, a Telugu woman stranded in Mumbai after being dumped by her boyfriend. He stops her from attempting suicide and borrows her phone to contact Deepak, still believing him unaware of Robo’s killings. When Deepak doesn’t answer, Sameera switches the phone off. Deva asks what day it is. On hearing it’s Friday, he requests she drop him at a mosque, knowing he’ll get free food there.
What does Deva discover at the guest house?
Tracking Sameera’s number, Deepak learns Deva is at Haji Ali Dargah. But Deva notices he’s being followed and escapes. He sees Sameera again the next morning, but stops tailing her when she enters a girls’ hostel. Deva then drifts around the city’s sea-facing corners, begging and reflecting on his childhood in Tirupati, where he was forced into begging after being thrown out of a filthy orphanage. Eventually, he sneaks back into the guest house and finds Khushboo missing—confirming she, too, was killed. He waits for Deepak, only to see him talking with Robo, and realizes he’s been betrayed.
What does the inspector discover at Kanvi?
Deva flees into the woods. Robo and his men chase him. Robo catches up—but is bitten by wild dogs, an ironic twist given Deva’s visible compassion for stray dogs earlier. Half-dead and unconscious, Deva stumbles to Sameera’s hostel. She rushes him to a hospital and gets him treated. Meanwhile, Neeraj has Deva’s registrar, Narayan, assassinated. He gives Deepak one final chance to hunt Deva down.
Deepak travels to Tirupati, where he learns Deva had previously escaped death and abuse at the orphanage—becoming the only survivor of its horrors. He calls Sameera to ask about Deva, but she lies, saying she doesn’t know where he is. Deva later visits her with a packet of biryani to thank her. Sameera gives him the clothes she had bought for her ex and urges him to stop contacting her and avoid returning to Tirupati. He decides to head to Kanvi, the address found on the registrar’s card.
At Kanvi, Deva is arrested and taken to a local police station. But when the inspector spots Neeraj Mitra’s name in a newspaper Deva carries, he becomes curious. He accompanies Deva to Narayan’s old address, only to find it deserted. Investigating further, he discovers that Deva—officially the ‘owner’ of a company named Balaji Investments—had transferred ₹700 crores to Gangaram, a humble construction worker who ‘owns’ an under-construction skyscraper.
The inspector realizes this is part of a massive laundering scam—and that this seemingly penniless beggar has absconded with thousands of crores. He tells Deva that this money could wipe out begging in the country. Meanwhile, Deepak storms Sameera’s hostel and intimidates her into revealing that Deva is in Kanvi.
Kuberaa (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
What does Deva demand from Neeraj?
Deepak reaches Kanvi and finds Deva and the inspector inside a building. Deva attempts another escape. The inspector tries to arrest Deepak when Deva shouts out the truth about him, but Deepak shoots the inspector.
A local MP, to whom the building belongs, is also mysteriously murdered. Deva leaps from the building and miraculously survives. He finds Sameera, warns her, and escapes with her when Deepak’s men pursue them. They hide inside a garbage lorry and narrowly flee. Near the station, Deva sees a beggar’s body being taken away. With Sameera, he returns to Narayan’s flat, where he reveals crores of hidden cash. He takes a few bundles and donates them to municipal workers, organizing a grand cremation for the beggar.
Meanwhile, Deepak uncovers the full scale of Neeraj’s scheme—the oil rig explosion, the privatization of the oil field, and the massive looting operation. Disillusioned, his conscience shifts. Deva, now at the flat, uses Sameera’s phone to call Deepak, who is sitting with Neeraj. Deva demands tens of thousands of crores to aid beggars in every major city. Neeraj scoffs and hangs up. Deva tells Sameera he wants to trap Deepak.
As expected, Deepak shows up. Deva knocks him unconscious and locks him up at the flat with Sameera. Deepak begs for forgiveness and claims he’s had a change of heart, revealing that he saved and hid Khushboo.
Deepak takes Deva and Sameera to a women’s shelter where Khushboo is safe. But Neeraj’s men catch up and attack. Deepak kills Robo and the goons. Sameera helps Khushboo escape, but Khushboo goes into labor and dies giving birth. Deepak is also killed in the shootout, but not before taking down the remaining henchmen. Deva performs the last rites for both Khushboo and Deepak.
After the cremation, Deva loads a truck with crores of cash and dumps it outside Neeraj’s house, triggering a massive stir. He also hands a pen drive containing Deepak’s video testimony against Neeraj to Neeraj’s watchman. Then he calls Neeraj and demands that he live as a beggar for 24 hours.
Deva follows Neeraj through his ‘begging’ spree and confronts him at a garbage yard. Neeraj attacks Deva, Sameera, and Khushboo’s baby. In the chaos, Deva accidentally beheads Neeraj. Sameera solemnly remarks that Neeraj’s death was necessary for Raju—Khushboo’s son to live. In the closing credits, Deva, Sameera, and the baby return to the staircase at Tirupati to meet the old begging priest. Sameera reveals the child’s name: Kuberaa—for he now inherits a fifteen-thousand-crore legacy.
