Starfish (2023) Plot Summary & Ending Explained

The film closes with Tara finally untangling the knots that have bound her life. After her mother’s suicide, Tara is haunted by a note that hints at a hidden “mistake” from decades ago. Driven by grief, she tracks down Sukanya’s old friend Leslie, who reveals that the man she thought was her father, Ramesh, is not her biological parent. Sukanya had spent a night in Goa in the early‑1990s with a musician who was known then as Kailash – later revealed to be Arlo, the charismatic guru she meets again years later.

Tara confronts Arlo, demanding answers about her mother’s death and her own lineage. Arlo insists he never met Sukanya, even producing an article that places him in London when she was in Goa, and he shows an ID card reading Arvind Lohri. The evidence seems to clear him, and Tara, exhausted by the endless search for truth, accepts the closure it offers. Yet the camera lingers on the card as Arlo flicks it into the water, hinting that his proof might be a façade.