Saket Ram (Kamal Hasan) and his Muslim friend Amjad Ali Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) are archaeologists working on the Mohenjodara site. The work is abandoned during the riots, and Saket returns back to his Bengali wife Aparna (Rani Mukherjee) in Calcutta. Later Aparna is gang-raped and killed by Muslim rioters. This incident angers Saket who decides to avenge his wife's murder. He meets a Hindu fanatic Abhyankar (Atul Kulkarni) who provokes Saket against Muslims and converts him to a rigid Hindu.

Saket's family gets him to remarry another girl Mythali (Vasundhara) against his wishes. Mythali also could not erase the memories of Aparna from Saket's mind. Saket starts believing that the root behind all the sufferings of Hindus is Gandhi and that Gandhi only favours Muslims. Abhyankar is given the mission to kill Gandhiji but is killed. So now it is Saket's turn to complete the mission. For this purpose he goes to Delhi and there he meets his old Muslim friend Amjad.

Amjad tells him that all Muslims are not bad and that changes Saket's heart towards Muslim. He decides to protect them. He decides to go to Gandhi and confess but at that point in front of his eyes, Nathuram Godse shoots Gandhi.

The film is a flashback at the dead body of Gandhi. It is Kamal Hasan's film. He is seen in each and every frame. Kamal Hasan as a director has taken care of the minutest detail of the film -- sets, lighting, music, colour. Kamal Hasan truly is the best actor. In small roles, Shah Rukh Khan, Naseerudin Shah (as Gandhi) and Atul Kulkarni play their parts well. Rani Mukherjee and newcomer Vasundhara are natural and have given good performances.