'Shodha' Ending Explained And Series Recap: Who Killed Meera? 

Directed by Sunil Mysuru, Shodha is the story of a man whose life turns upside down after his wife goes missing on the day of his birthday. He goes to the police station to file a complaint, but as the investigation unfolds, a series of hidden truths are uncovered, revealing that reality was not as it seemed. So let’s find out what happened in Shodha and what had actually happened to the protagonist’s wife.

Spoiler Alert

What happened to Rohit’s wife?

It was Rohit’s birthday, and his wife, Meera, had made arrangements to spend a beautiful evening together. On his way home, Rohit had a chat with his daughter, Tara, and told her that he would pick her up from her hostel on the weekend, as the school did not allow the children to leave campus on weekdays. But the moment Rohit reached home, his happiness and his excitement turned into paranoia. The house was decorated, the candles were lit, the cake, the wine—everything was kept in order, but his wife, Meera, was nowhere to be found. He waited for his wife to return, but then his anxiety got the better of him, and he decided to go to the Madikeri police station and file a missing persons report. The officer in charge, Bhairava, heard whatever Rohit had to say and then decided to search his villa and look for clues. The villa was clean, and there were no signs of forced entry. Bhairava realized that either Meera had gone out on her own accord or she was taken by somebody she knew from before. But then something unprecedented happened: Rohit met with an accident a couple of days after he filed the missing person’s report; he was admitted to the hospital, and the very next day his wife, Meera, showed up out of nowhere. The catch was that Rohit said she was not his wife. He accused her of being an imposter. Now, Rohit was having problems remembering everything correctly after the accident, and so Bhairava thought that because he was in such a state of shock, he couldn’t remember his wife. Bhairava also went through Meera’s documents, and he came to the realization that she was telling the truth and she was not an imposter. But Rohit was just not ready to agree, and he kept trying to expose the fake Meera.

Was Rohit lying about his wife’s disappearance? 

Rohit was not wrong when he said that the woman pretending to be his wife was an imposter. Shruthi Vaidehi was a police officer, and she was acting on Bhairava’s orders. Actually, when Bhairava had gone to search Rohit’s villa for the first time, he found certain anomalies, certain clues that made him realize that Rohit had something to do with his wife’s disappearance and that he was just putting up an act in front of them. When Rohit came to the police station, his clothes were neatly ironed; he looked sharp, as he had slept well at night. It didn’t make sense to Bhairava how he got time to pay attention to his appearance when he pretended to be in such a state of panic. Then Bhairava found spots of blood on the wooden table in Rohit’s living room, and he knew that an altercation might have happened between Rohit and Meera. Bhairava wanted to get to the truth, and when he realized that Rohit wasn’t able to process things properly after the accident, he decided to take advantage of the situation. He asked Shruthi to play his wife and get the truth out of him. Things got a bit out of hand when Rohit decided to get intimate with Shruthi, as he felt that physical intimacy might get his memory back. Shruthi had to confess to him that she was not Meera, though she threatened to not leave until he told her the truth. What Bhiarav and Shruthi both didn’t know was that Rohit was a step ahead of them. He had staged the entire accident, and he had not lost his memory. He was just trying to lay a trap for the police officers so that when the time came, they wouldn’t be able to prove anything in court. Rohit knew that when everything failed, Bhairava would try to orchestrate a fake attack on Shruthi and pin all the blame on him. Bhairava went one step further, and he involved Tara, Rohit’s daughter, in the scheme of things. The fake Meera, i.e., Shruthi, one day left a note for Rohit and told him that she was going to leave for Chicago with Tara. That’s where Rohit lost his composure, and he confessed to having killed Meera. Rohit was taken into custody, and Bhairava thought that he had finally gotten the better of the man, but it was not so. Rohit confessed to his crime so that the chaos would come to an end. He told them that all the evidence they had was circumstantial in nature. Rohit was an exceptional lawyer, and he knew that even his confession wouldn’t be incriminating evidence in the court since he always had the option of taking the defense that he was forced to confess to the crimes. Bhairava and Shruthi were in a fix, and they were made to realize that the only way they could get the better of Rohit was if they found Meera’s dead body. 

How did the police find Meera’s dead body? 

At the beginning of every episode the series flashed back, and we saw how a woman named Devika protected her kid against attackers. The legend of Devika and Kariappa was a timeless tale of valor, courage, and a mother’s unwavering love for her child. Kariappa perished on the battlefield, and then the attackers came for Devika. Devika also died, but she made sure that her child was alive. Meanwhile, Tara was playing the character of Devika in her school play. Aditi, Meera’s sister, was there supporting her niece when she realized something. According to folklore, the women who found Devika’s child after she passed away exclaimed that there was no place more safe than a mother’s lap. Aditi got an epiphany of sorts, and she realized that Rohit could have laid her sister to rest at their mother’s grave. Aditi’s speculations proved to be right. Bhairava was able to recover Meera’s dead body, and Rohit ultimately was found guilty of killing his wife. 

Who Killed Meera? 

There came a twist at the end of Shodha season 1, and we realized that Aditi, Meera’s sister, had a much bigger role to play in the scheme of things. Actually, Aditi was Tara’s surrogate mother, which was why she felt so attached to the kid. She took care of Tara as her own daughter and made sure that her mother’s absence didn’t have any sort of negative impact on her. Aditi attended Tara’s school functions; she was there to support her during her performances, and she even got emotional when Tara was just about to go on stage. One could understand the deep bond a woman forms with a child she carries in her womb, even if she is only a surrogate mother. It was Aditi who first came to know that Meera was planning to go to Chicago with Tara. Aditi told Meera that it wasn’t fair to her, as she would be separated from Tara, but Meera didn’t care. She quite bluntly told her that she was just Tara’s surrogate mother. In that brief conversation, Aditi realized that Meera would never be able to understand why she felt so attached to Tara. That utter disregard filled Aditi with resentment towards her sister. Aditi was a smart woman, and she probably knew that Rohit would lose his temper if he got to know that Meera was planning to leave him and separate him from his daughter. Aditi met Meera, probably sometime before Rohit came back home on that day. She spiked Meera’s drink, probably hoping that she would blabber things in front of Rohit and make him angry. I think Aditi knew what the worst outcome could be, and she was prepared for that. I am assuming she was ready to sacrifice her sister so that she could stay with Tara. Things went according to Aditi’s plan, and Rohit ended up killing his wife in a fit of rage. Probably Rohit didn’t want to really kill her, but he lost his temper, and before he came back to his senses, it was too late. Rohit buried Meera’s body and then started the entire act of pretending that his wife had gone missing. I don’t think that Rohit had any clue that Aditi had a role to play in Meera’s demise. I think he was as surprised as anybody else that even after knowing that he was the murderer, she chose to stay in contact with him, and she kept telling him whatever was happening in Tara’s life. Would Aditi have certainly known that Rohit would kill Meera that day? I don’t think so. But she was well aware that Rohit wouldn’t allow Meera to leave for Chicago, which was all she wanted. So in the end, Rohit was put behind bars while Aditi took care of Tara. Bhairava told Rohit that he would have committed a perfect crime had Meera’s body never been discovered. But I guess Bhairava was mistaken: a perfect crime had been committed, only the perpetrator wasn’t Rohit. 

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