How Bhaskar Kumar escapes to the US?

Lucky Baskhar, Venky Atluri’s 2024 Telugu-language period crime drama, is more than just a riveting story of rags to riches. The film expertly weaves themes of ambition, morality, and redemption against the backdrop of financial fraud. Set in the late 1980s and early 1990s’ Mumbai, the narrative captures the rise and fall (and rise) of Baskhar, a lower-middle-class banker who exploits the loopholes of an unsupervised financial system to escape poverty. Here is all you need to know about the story of Lucky Baskhar, its ending, surprises, twists and more.

Dulquer Salmaan, who has given several compelling performances before, essays the titular role of Baskhar Kumar. Baskhar Kumar, the protagonist, begins as a middle-class man burdened by circumstances but eventually transforms into a cunning player in the financial world, driven by ambition and later tempered by guilt and the desire to protect his family.

What happens in Lucky Baskhar?

The story, told through a fourth-wall-breaking framing device, begins in Mumbai 1992 with Baskhar, an Assistant General Manager (AGM) of Magadha Bank’s Mumbai branch, being interrogated by the CBI. As the investigation unfolds, the audience is transported into Baskhar’s past, which reveals his motivations and the circumstances that pushed him into the murky world of financial fraud. Baskhar grew up in a middle-class household, and was the elder son of a chartered accountant who was swindled by his own friends. That setback left the family bankrupt. The burning desire within Baskhar was to come out of the muck and become wealthy again. He now lives with his wife, son, father, sister, and brother, and longs for riches and power, a far cry from the modest life he leads.

When his colleague was promoted instead of him at Magadha Bank, the career aspirations of Baskhar, a young cashier, were foiled. Feeling resentful and disillusioned, Baskhar sniff an opportunity when Antony, an electronics smuggler, approached him for a loan to be paid as a bribe for the release of smuggled goods from customs.

Reluctant at first, Baskhar finally agreed to steal the money from the bank vault, skirting the rules with his position. He made sure that after Antony’s operations had reaped a profit, the stolen money found its way back — after having taken his share, of course. This operation continued until Antony left for the United States, but it set a precedence for Baskhar’s descent into larger financial crimes.

The promotion and growing greed

Baskhar’s illegal activities went unnoticed, and he was promoted after three senior bank officials were fired for corruption. This new position brought him closer to influential clients, including Harsha Mehra (clearly a Harshad Mehta stand-in), a stock market manipulator. Harsha’s representative, Suraj, introduced Baskharto the world of fake bank receipts — a tactic used to manipulate funds and earn massive stock market profits.

Initially a reluctant participant, Baskhar quickly recognised the potential to amass wealth. He demanded a share of the profits and used the illicit money to fund further schemes, including rigging lottery results to launder the black money. Baskhar’s greed and cunning grew, but so did the risks.

What happens in the ending of Lucky Baskhar?

It all began to go downhill when Baskhar and Katari Bank’s manager began to discover the true extent of the crime and how much fake bank receipts were floating in circulation. This posed a grave danger to the entire Indian economy and stock market. Due to excess stress from such news, the bank manager died of a stroke and this shook Baskhar to his core. This moment marked a turning point in his life.

Baskhar then decided to get out of the fraud. He refused to pass further fictitious bank receipts and tried to blow the whistle on corruption in his bank by informing the RBI. Angered, his bosses, who also were part of the fraud, plotted against Baskhar and staged a CBI raid to get him to back off.

Baskhar anticipated his superiors’ moves and devised a meticulous escape plan. Before the scam could fully collapse, he emptied his bank accounts, closed them, and fled to the United States with his family. Using the money he had laundered, Baskhar secured an American visa by investing in a hotel, which also expedited his green card process. This allowed him to build a new life in Boston, free from extradition, in Lucky Baskhar ending.

In Boston, Baskhar remade himself into a thriving hotelier. Guilt from his misdeeds and the urge to keep his family from being shamed kept him on the right track. His wife, Sumathi (Meenaakshi Chaudhary), must have known that their sudden relocation was due to Baskhar’s questionable activities, but she believed in his intentions to keep the family safe. Baskhar’s new wealth and stability were symbolised by the American Express credit cards he secured for himself and his wife, proving that he was determined to rebuild his life in an ethical manner.

The story of the movie, if you cannot already tell, draws heavily on the framework of real-life financial scandals, most notably the Harshad Mehta securities scam of 1992, which inspired the acclaimed series Scam 1992.

Watch Lucky Baskhar on Netflix here.

(Hero and featured image: Courtesy of IMDb)