| Director | Ali Abbas Zafar |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Country | India |
| Budget | ₹100 crore |
| Box office | ₹325.6 crore |
In 2010, Bharat Kumar, a shopkeeper in Delhi refuses to sell his store despite lucrative offers. On his 70th birthday, he tells his past to his grandniece, and the film goes into flashback.
Bharat, aged 7, along with his parents and siblings board a train to India with many other refugees for safety from the riots in Pakistan. He loses his baby sister "Gudia" in the chaos. Their father, Gautam, stays there to search for Gudia, after Bharat promises to care for the family. He moves to the imported goods store of Gautam's sister Jamuna and her husband Keemat Rai Kapoor, and meets a roadside circus worker, Radha. They two fall in love, and join The Great Russian Circus.
Bharat has gained a lot of fame over the years he has spent at the circus. His brother Chote suffers an accident while trying to emulate him. Bharat bids a tearful goodbye to Radha. He and his friend, Vilayati, look for jobs when the country is shocked due to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's death.
Bharat joins many Indian migrants in Saudi Arabia, following an oil discovery, to earn money for his sister Mehek's marriage. There he falls in love with his chief engineer Kumud, who proposes to marry him. Bharat refuses, thinking it would come in his way of fulfilling Gautam's promise. Once the two arrive back in India, Kumud announces her love for him. They begin a live-in relationship.
Bharat starts to work as a stationmaster after Jamuna dies. During the 1983 Cricket World Cup, Keemat decides to sell the store due to a need of money and asks Bharat to buy it. Bharat initially refuses as he hopes to keep the promise he made to Gautam, still believing he would one day come back, however he reluctantly agrees. Bharat leaves India, with his friend Vilayati, to become a sailor for 8 months and earns money to buy the store.
After the economic liberalisation in India, Kumud becomes the creative director of the newly formed Zee TV and runs a program to unite the relatives of people who were separated during the partition. Bharat reconnects with Meher, a London citizen adopted by a British family during the partition, and realises that she is Gudia, who returns to India. An emotional reunion ensues where Bharat learns that Janki had died, prompting Bharat to find Gautam.
An elderly Bharat finally decides to sell the store, something which he had stubbornly refused to do despite the store losing money. Before reaching the train, Gautam had promised Bharat that he would reunite with him at the store, which had explained why Bharat had held on to the store for all that time. Bharat concludes that Gautam is likely to have passed away as he is too old to have survived. Bharat sees a vision of him, where Gautam assures him to move on. A tearful Bharat finally decides to move on and marries Kumud.