Set in the jagged ravines of the Chambal valley in 1975, the film follows a band of dacoits who style themselves as Baaghis, rebels living by a harsh code. The group’s fragile balance is tested when Lachhu [Jaspal Sharma] informs the Baaghis that a dowry of gold and cash will be delivered to the bride by her father, prompting a raid led by the feared Maan Singh, known as “Dadda.” The Special Task Force, headed by Inspector Virender Singh Gujjar [Ashutosh Rana], launches a strike during the loot, and Dadda is killed, cutting a path of betrayal and split through the gang.
Lakhna [Sushant Singh Rajput] contemplates surrender to the police, while Vakil Singh [Ranvir Shorey] chooses to stay loyal to the Baaghi way of life. On the run, the fugitives cross paths with a woman and her younger sister, whose family has been decimated by a rival gang. They escort the pair to a hospital after a late-night visit to a doctor, only to find the young girl belongs to the untouchable caste. In the chaos, Lakhna blows a wall with a gas cylinder, and the group escapes in a truck. Vakil initially blocks the woman’s entry, but after she reveals her name Indumati Tomar [Bhumi Pednekar] and her village, he relents and lets her climb aboard.
At their next stop, Indumati’s husband and teenage son arrive, attempting to take both women away. Indumati reveals a brutal truth: she killed her father-in-law for raping Sonchiriya, putting her own life at risk. Lakhna erupts in defiance, seizing Vakil’s brother as a hostage, and Indumati’s son retaliates by murdering Vakil’s brother. The escape continues with Indumati and Sonchiriya in tow, and Vakil Singh vows to hunt them down.
While crossing the Chambal river, Lakhna shares a haunting backstory about a curse involving the killing of innocent children inside a room, a curse that has decimated the Baaghi group one by one. To lift the curse, they seek Sonchiriya, a symbol of salvation. They capture an influential man and present him to Phuliya [Sampa Mandal], head of the Mallah gang, who aids them briefly, though the group is soon ambushed by the police.
Meanwhile, Vakil learns that Maan Singh looted the dowry house to save Lacchu’s father from Inspector Gujjar, only to discover it was a trap meant to kill the Baaghis. Gujjar had held Lacchu’s father hostage and promised his freedom only if Lacchu lures the Baaghis into the village for a mass police takedown and a government payoff.
The fugitives reach the ruins where Vakil arrives with his gang to assist Lakhna in getting Indumati and Sonchiriya to safety. Lakhna is wounded in the abdomen but remains determined to deliver the girls to a hospital. He is confronted by Indumati’s son, who seeks vengeance against his mother’s alleged abuser, forcing a painful revelation: the boy’s grandfather raped his mother and was his biological father.
As the hospital doors close on a tense night, Lakhna finally surrenders, his task of protecting Sonchiriya complete, but the era’s curse proves deadly as Gujjar shoots him. In the aftermath, Vakil Singh is killed by the police at a railway station, his body later loaded onto a tractor. On the way to the police station after that confrontation, Gujjar himself is shot and killed by one of his own Thakur constables, whose uncle had been insulted earlier by Gujjar.
