| Director | Shazia Iqbal |
|---|---|
| Box office | ₹29 crore |
Neelesh “Neelu” Ahirwar is a law student from a historically marginalized, lower-caste community. Through the reservation system, he gains admission to a prestigious law school, where he intends to earnestly work hard and study to become a lawyer. In college, he meets Vidhi Bharadwaj, a classmate from an upper-caste, socially privileged family. Despite their different backgrounds, the two develop a close friendship which gradually blossoms into love.
As their bond deepens, the social reality around them becomes ruthlessly clear. Vidhi's family, especially her closer relatives, begin to object to the relationship. At one point, Neelesh is invited to Vidhi's sister's Nimisha's wedding. Her father Arvind reluctantly allows him to attend, but at the wedding, Neelesh is beaten by Vidhi's cousins for "daring" to associate with someone from a higher caste. Her cousin brother Raunak "Ronnie" Bhardwaj, who studies in the same class as them, even urinates on him to make this point, and while Arvind prevents further physical humiliation, he reiterates his message.
For a time, Neelesh stays away from her, but the feelings of frustration and anger within him cause him to fight for his rights in other ways. For example, instead of sitting in the back of the class with the other lower caste students, he decides to sit in the front - in a seat generally used by Ronnie. This results in more bullying, this time in the college campus, resulting in Ronnie's suspension. As part of the disciplinary action, Neelesh's father is summoned to the college, where he also gets humiliated by Ronnie's friends, further increasing Neelesh's frustration.
Shekhar, a lower-caste activist student, ends up committing suicide due to being overwhelmed by the pressures and injustices around him, and the shared traumatic experience results in a reconciliation between Neelesh and Vidhi. However, Vidhi's relatives are still against their relationship, and end up hiring Shankar, who is a vigilante "enforcer" of caste violence to kill Neelesh, who manages to escape while Shankar eventually commits suicide for the dishonor of not completing his job properly. Seeing Ronnie at the scene, he realizes who orchestrated this and chases after Ronnie all the way to the latter's home. Neelesh stops himself from killing Ronnie, but reveals all the injustice they have committed on him in public, humiliating them instead.
When Arvind's brother and Ronnie attempt to harm Neelesh further, Vidhi resists with a loud scream. Ronnie is ultimately forced to relent, as is the Bhardwaj family, though the trauma between the couple still remains despite them ending up together.