The movie begins at present day with Saket Ram (Kamal Haasan), an 89-year-old Hindu man at his death bed in Madras. He is being taken care of by his grandson Saket Ram Junior, a famous novelist who writes historical fiction, and their family doctor, Munawar. Ram Jr. explains how he grew up listening to his grandfather’s stories. He then narrates one of his grandfather’s strangest stories that he plans to use for his next novel. As Ram Jr. narrates the story, Ram is reminded of it.
The scene reverts to the 1940s, when he and his good friend, Amjad Ali Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) are archaeologists working together under their boss, Mortimer Wheeler, in Mohenjo-daro in the Sindh province in what was then North-West India. Relations are pleasant between the Indians and the English. Saket and Amjad do not approve of partition and the creation of Pakistan.