Plot

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

Town of Husnabad, 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. Satya asks Roop for this arrangement for 1 year as Satya has only 1 year to live.

Roop keeps rejecting Satya's proposal and retorts that just because Satya's father had done a lot of favors to her family, she cannot balance the scales by asking inappropriate favors but later gets convinced by her father, Dharampal (Pawan Chopra). Dharampal is a teacher of classical music and he says that Satya has promised to take care of Roop's 2 other sisters, which he himself will not be able to do with his meager income.

Satya insists that the companionship is not sexual, but only intellectual. Satya wants that in the one year both Dev and Roop get to know each other so that Dev can marry Roop after Satya dies. Roop agrees on the condition that she will marry Dev to which Satya agrees. Roop says that there is no guarantee that after Satya dies that Dev would marry her.

Once married, Dev tells Roop that he still loves Satya and that their relationship will only be cordial and platonic. Dev belongs to one of the richest families in Lahore. A depressed Roop takes solace in music, which she begins learning from the madam of a brothel, Bahaar Begum (Madhuri Dixit). Roop had heard Bahaar's music from her room's window and wanted to visit her to learn singing from Bahaar. Roop is forbidden to visit the brothel (as the brothel is situated in Hira Mandi, the most ill reputed area of Lahore), but threatens to commit suicide, citing which Satya is able to get permission from Balraj (Dev's father and the head of the family) to allow Roop to visit the brothel.

Roop 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). Lajjo (Kiara Advani) is also Bahaar's student and is Zafar's lover.

Zafar wants to exact revenge on his parents, Bahaar Begum and Balraj Chaudhry (Sanjay Dutt). Balraj abandoned Zafar after Balraj ended his extramarital affair with Bahaar, indicating that Zafar is the illegitimate child of Balraj and Bahaar. Zafar wants to seduce 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 Dev does not support. Dev (who has studied in Britain) uses his newspaper to write anti-partition articles, while Zafar uses that to instigate Abdul against Dev. Balraj warns Dev that they are in minority in Lahore, and the Muslim League is getting more and more powerful. Balraj says that Dev's anti-partition articles are against the mood of the local community, but Dev believes that the British are conspiring to divide the country on religious lines, and if the country stays united, it can prosper a lot faster.

Zafar alleges that Dev & Balraj don't want partition as they will bring British automation steel manufacturing machines to Lahore, which will make 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 factory in Lahore as that would put the blacksmiths out of work. Dev refuses and Abdul thinks it because Dev wants Muslims to become 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 decided 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. The story ends with Roop remembering Zafar and Roop's inner voice saying that the color of love and hate is red, but it's love that often gets stigmatized or blemished.