- The lives of six enigmatic characters become entangled whilst in search of love, but separated by the dichotomy between the two worlds of Husnabad, a town in North India.
- Set in 1945, in Pre-Independent India, the elite, opulent and solemn world of the Chaudhry family, and the wild, mysterious and musical underbelly of the town, Hira Mandi, clash when Roop Chaudhry encounters Zafar, a daredevil from Hira Mandi, unleashing deep-buried truths, secrets of betrayal and affairs that threaten to bring the both worlds crashing down.
- The story is based in a town called Husnabad, near Lahore, a few years before the Partition of India and Pakistan. At the heart of this visual extravaganza, is the story of how eternal love goes beyond the norms and rules of society, the trappings of religion, all other physical and man-made boundaries. It is the saga of six lives against the tumultuous times of the partition.—Santhosh
- Set in 1947 Balraj Chaudhary lives with son Dev and daughter in law Satya who has few months to live and wants her husband Dev to marry Roop. Zafar falls for the beauty of Roop and plans revenge against Balraj Chaudhary and Bahar Begum who are his illegitimate parents.—alex.mjacko@gmail.com
- Lahore, 1946: Satya Chaudhry (Sonakshi Sinha), is told by her doctor that she's got cancer and will die soon. She goes back to her native village in the Rajputana area and requests her childhood acquaintance, Roop (Alia Bhatt), to provide companionship to her husband, Dev Chaudhry (Aditya Roy Kapur) who is running a liberal newspaper. Roop agrees on the condition that she will marry Dev to which Satya agrees. Once married, Dev tells Roop that he still loves Satya and that their relationship will only be cordial and platonic. A depressed Roop takes solace in music, which she begins learning from the madam of a brothel, Bahaar Begum (Madhuri Dixit). She is forbidden to visit the brothel, but threatens to commit suicide, citing which Satya is able to get permission from Balraj (Dev's father and the head of the family) She also begins working in her husband's publishing house. Roop expresses interest in writing about the condition of the locality in which the brothel is located, during which she interacts with a womanizing blacksmith named Zafar (Varun Dhawan).
Zafar wants to exact revenge on his parents, Bahaar Begum and Balraj Chaudhry (Sanjay Dutt) (who abandoned Zafar after Balraj ended his extramarital affair with Bahaar) by seducing Roop, as she is married to Balraj's legitimate son, Dev. Roop misconstrues Zafar's intentions and falls in love with him. She also begins to develop a friendship with Dev, much to Satya's pleasure. Satya dies after urging Dev to give Roop a chance and to forgive Balraj for his affair.
In another effort to humiliate Balraj, Zafar instigates communal hatred in his friend, Abdul (Kunal Khemu), by demanding for the partition of India on religious lines, which Balraj and Dev do not support. Dev uses his newspaper to write anti-partition articles, while Zafar uses that to instigate Abdul against Dev. Zafar alleges that Dev & Balraj don't want partition as they will bring British automation steel manufacturing machines to Lahore, which will makes thousands jobless (including Zafar and Abdul) and will benefit their own business interests. While if the country partitions, Muslims will have better control over what technology comes into their town.
Abdul meets Dev to try and dissuade him from putting up a steel factoring Lahore. Dev refuses and Abdul thinks it because Dev wants Muslims to becomes slaves of Hindus. The religious rift deepens. Balraj cautions Dev against stoking religions tensions in the name of industrial progress, but Dev is unmoved. Bahaar figures out Zafar's political and personal revenge motives and warns him, but ZAfar is too intent on meting out justice to the people whom he thinks did wrong by him.
When Balraj becomes aware of Roop and Zafar's affair, he confronts Bahaar Begum and Zafar. Zafar insults Balraj and tells him that Roop does not love Dev. He promises to fight for Roop's love. Bahaar, who disagrees with Zafar's approach, warns Roop (she tells Roop that Zafar is hers and Balraj's son and is using Roop). Heartbroken, Roop consummates her marriage with Dev, but insists that she would never be able to love him. Zafar finds out and is heartbroken and he believes Roop doesn't love him anymore. Balraj decides that time is ripe to leave Lahore for Amritsar. Abdul wants to harm Roop to further fuel his political ambitions, but Zafar warns Abdul against touching her. Abdul swears revenge and leaves.
As Abdul Khan's political stance gains leverage, riots against Hindus and Sikhs in the city take place, during which the Chaudhry's decide to flee to Amritsar with the help of Zafar, but not before Saroj (Achint Kaur), the benevolent maid, is brutally stabbed to death. Zafar confesses to Roop that he eventually fell in love with her, despite his early intention. Zafar and Roop rescue Dev from the murdering mobs at his printing press and head to the station where the last train is about to leave Lahore. While boarding a train, Zafar is murdered by Abdul, as Roop and Dev escape. Ten years later, Roop and Dev, still in a loveless marriage, are interviewed about their experience by Aditya (Pavail Gulati), a journalist documenting the partition.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
More from this title
More to explore
Most anticipated Indian movies and shows
Percentage shows amount of top page views.