Spoiler warning: This article contains major spoilers for Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa.
The murder mystery in Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa eventually gives us a clear answer.
Arun killed Sohrab.
But the film leaves us with a much more difficult question:
Why?
Was Arun secretly angry at his older brother?
Was he jealous of Sohrab?
Did years of humiliation finally explode into murder?
Or did Arun believe he was doing something completely different?
The final conversation between Arun and Dr. Chandra suggests that this was not an ordinary murder driven by one simple motive.
By the time Arun explains what happened, the identities of the killer and victim have become psychologically reversed.
And that means there are effectively two versions of the murder.
What happened in reality.
And what happened inside Arun’s mind.
First, What Actually Happened?
Let’s separate the physical facts from Arun’s perception.
Sohrab Handa was killed.
Baba initially attempts to take responsibility, apparently trying to protect his surviving son.
But the investigation eventually turns toward Arun.
Arun confesses.
So at the physical level, there is little ambiguity:
Arun murdered his older brother Sohrab.
But then Arun begins talking.
And his explanation doesn’t sound like a normal killer explaining why he killed someone.
He talks about Arun almost as though Arun were another person.
That is when Chandra understands that something far more complicated has happened.
Arun No Longer Thinks of Himself as Arun
By the final confrontation, Arun has psychologically taken on Sohrab’s identity.
That changes everything he says afterward.
The body standing in front of everyone belongs to Arun.
But the person speaking increasingly understands himself as:
Sohrab Handa.
That means when he talks about Arun’s suffering, he isn’t simply describing himself in the ordinary third person.
He has psychologically separated himself from Arun.
Arun has become someone else.
Someone weak.
Someone hurt.
Someone who suffered.
Someone who needed to be released.
And the new “Sohrab” speaks about that person from the outside.
So Why Did Arun Kill Sohrab?
This is where the film creates its central paradox.
In reality:
Arun killed Sohrab.
But once Arun becomes Sohrab psychologically, that reality can be reconstructed in his mind.
Now the identity standing alive is “Sohrab.”
And the identity that has disappeared is “Arun.”
So the murder can be reimagined almost backwards:
Sohrab killed — or released — Arun.
That is why Arun’s explanation sounds disturbingly compassionate rather than hateful.
He speaks about suffering.
Pain.
Self-harm.
A person who could no longer continue.
The murder becomes, in his altered perception, an act of release.
Was Arun Trying to “Save” Arun?
Psychologically, that appears to be part of the way he rationalizes what happened.
Arun’s history matters enormously here.
He has been emotionally fragile.
He has hurt himself.
He has lived in the shadow of his dominant older brother.
And he appears deeply dissatisfied with being Arun.
Then Dr. Chandra introduces the idea of becoming somebody else.
Arun already knows who he would choose.
Sohrab.
Once Sohrab dies and Arun assumes his identity, Arun’s former self can be treated almost like the victim of the story.
The weak Arun is gone.
The suffering Arun is gone.
The Arun who hurt himself is gone.
And “Sohrab” survives.
That makes the murder resemble a grotesque form of rescue.
Not in reality.
In Arun’s reconstructed reality.
Did Arun Hate Sohrab?
This is where the film becomes more interesting than a standard sibling murder story.
Arun does not simply hate his brother.
He idolizes him.
That seems contradictory.
Why would you kill the person you want to become?
But psychologically, the two things can fit together.
Sohrab represents everything Arun believes he is not.
Confident.
Dominant.
Aggressive.
Unapologetic.
Powerful in social situations.
Arun does not merely want Sohrab gone.
He wants what Sohrab possesses.
At the deepest level, he appears to want Sohrab’s identity.
And after the murder, that is exactly what he takes.
The Murder Removes the Original Sohrab
Before the murder, there is an obvious obstacle to Arun becoming Sohrab.
Sohrab already exists.
Arun can admire him.
Imitate him.
Wish to be him.
But there is still a clear distinction:
Sohrab is Sohrab.
Arun is Arun.
After Sohrab dies, that boundary changes.
The physical Sohrab is gone.
And psychologically, Arun moves into the identity left behind.
That makes the murder more than an act of violence.
It becomes the event that allows the identity switch to become complete.
Arun destroys Sohrab and then occupies Sohrab’s place.
Was the Murder Planned as an Identity Switch?
This is harder to prove.
We should be careful not to claim that Arun consciously developed a perfectly rational plan:
- Kill Sohrab.
- Become Sohrab.
- Erase Arun.
The film does not present the transformation as that kind of calculated strategy.
Arun is psychologically unstable.
His perception changes.
The switch appears to emerge from his existing emotional problems, his idolization of Sohrab and the events of that night.
So it is safer to understand the murder and identity switch as psychologically connected rather than as a carefully planned identity theft.
Arun doesn’t appear to be executing a clever scheme.
He is collapsing.
Why Does Chandra Compare It to Suicide?
This is one of the most important lines for understanding the ending.
Chandra realizes that what happened can be viewed as a kind of suicide.
Again, not physically.
Arun’s body survives.
But psychologically, Arun disappears.
Consider what remains after the murder.
Sohrab’s physical body is dead.
But Sohrab’s identity appears to continue inside Arun.
Arun’s physical body is alive.
But Arun’s identity has effectively been rejected or erased.
So the result looks like this:
Sohrab: body dead, identity survives.
Arun: body survives, identity dies.
That is why calling the event merely “murder” doesn’t fully capture what the film is doing.
Who Is the Real Victim?
Physically, the answer is obvious.
Sohrab.
But psychologically, the film complicates it.
Arun has spent much of his life suffering.
His self-harm tells us that his conflict isn’t only directed outward.
It is directed inward.
The person Arun cannot tolerate may ultimately be Arun himself.
Sohrab becomes the identity through which he escapes that person.
The murder therefore contains two forms of destruction.
Arun destroys his brother.
Then he destroys himself as an identity.
Who Is the Killer in Arun’s Mind?
This may be the strangest part of the ending.
Once Arun believes he is Sohrab, the psychological story becomes inverted.
The living person identifies as Sohrab.
The erased person is Arun.
Therefore, in Arun’s altered interpretation:
Sohrab survives.
Arun is gone.
That allows him to speak about Arun’s suffering almost compassionately.
The real killer has mentally placed himself on the other side of the murder.
This is why some of the final dialogue feels confusing on first viewing.
The pronouns and identities no longer line up with physical reality.
The film wants us to feel that confusion.
The Dinner Game Helps Explain the Motive
Earlier, Chandra asks the group to imagine becoming somebody else.
Arun chooses Sohrab.
That moment becomes crucial after the murder.
It tells us that Arun’s fascination with Sohrab predates the final identity switch.
He doesn’t randomly select his brother’s identity after killing him.
The desire is already there.
The dinner conversation simply exposes it.
That gives us a psychological chain:
Arun suffers as Arun.
↓
Arun idolizes Sohrab.
↓
Arun says he would choose to become Sohrab.
↓
Arun kills Sohrab.
↓
Arun psychologically becomes Sohrab.
Seen in that order, the murder becomes much easier to understand.
This Is Why Jealousy Isn’t Enough
It would be easy to describe the story as sibling jealousy.
The weaker younger brother kills the dominant older brother.
But that misses the most interesting part of the film.
A jealous person wants what someone else has.
Arun goes further.
He wants to become the person who has it.
Sohrab’s death therefore doesn’t simply remove a rival.
It creates an identity Arun can inhabit.
That’s what makes the ending disturbing.
The murderer doesn’t celebrate the victim’s disappearance.
He preserves the victim by becoming him.
Did Arun Kill Sohrab to End His Own Suffering?
In a psychological sense, this may be the closest explanation.
Arun cannot escape being Arun.
His suffering follows him because it is attached to his own identity.
So the ultimate escape becomes:
Stop being Arun.
Sohrab provides the alternative.
The murder then becomes both outward violence and inward erasure.
Arun kills his brother physically.
But psychologically, the person he eliminates is himself.
This is why Chandra’s interpretation of the event as a kind of suicide is so important.
It tells us how the film wants us to think beyond the literal crime.
Baba Loses Two Sons
This also makes Baba’s ending much more tragic.
At first, it seems that he has lost Sohrab and is desperately trying to save Arun.
That explains why he attempts to take responsibility.
But after Arun’s switch becomes clear, Baba faces something worse.
Sohrab is physically dead.
And Arun no longer seems to understand himself as Arun.
Baba has protected his surviving son’s body.
But he may not be able to protect the son inside it.
In that sense, the murder takes both brothers from him.
One physically.
One psychologically.
So Was Arun Saving His Brother or Killing Himself?
Neither phrase is literally sufficient.
Arun physically murdered Sohrab.
But his altered identity transforms the meaning of that act.
Once he believes himself to be Sohrab, he can interpret the suffering “Arun” as the person who has been released.
That is why the murder can simultaneously resemble:
murder,
mercy,
identity replacement,
and psychological suicide.
All four ideas collide in the same act.
Final Answer: Why Did Arun Kill Sohrab Handa?
The film does not reduce Arun’s motive to simple hatred or jealousy.
The stronger interpretation is that Arun’s murder of Sohrab is inseparable from his desire to escape his own damaged identity.
Arun idolizes his brother.
He wants to become him.
After killing Sohrab, he psychologically assumes Sohrab’s identity and begins treating “Arun” as someone else — someone whose suffering has finally ended.
So the physical truth remains simple:
Arun killed Sohrab.
But the psychological truth is much stranger:
Arun killed the man he wanted to become — and then became him.
In doing so, he also erased the person he could no longer bear to be.
Himself.
That is why Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa ends with something more unsettling than the solution to a murder mystery.
Sohrab is dead.
Arun is alive.
And yet, somehow:
Sohrab remains — while Arun is gone.
More Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa Mysteries
Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa Ending Explained: What Really Happened to Arun?
Start with the full ending breakdown, including Arun’s confession, Baba’s false confession and Dr. Chandra’s final explanation.
When Did Arun “Switch” Into Sohrab Handa? The Dinner Game Explained
Did Arun change during Chandra’s identity game, after the murder, or only during the final confession? We reconstruct the likely timeline.
Why Did Arun Jump From the Treehouse in Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa?
Nobody pushed Arun. The film reveals that he jumped — raising one final question about what was happening inside his mind before the murder mystery was solved.