Retired teacher Dwarka Anand is an idealistic man. His engineer son Akhilesh's friend Manav is an ambitious capitalist. Manav meets Dwarka before Akhilesh's wedding, and declares his intentions to go abroad to study and then return to start his own company. Dwarka does not care for his capitalist ideas and calls them greed. Manav is also against the socialist mindset of Dwarka and both enter an uneasy silence. Dwarka then kicks Manav out of the house after he hears Manav try to persuade Akhilesh to give up his Govt job, put his marriage on hold and to come with him to US and to secure both their futures.
Three years later, Manav is a successful telecom entrepreneur and sits with highly influential people in business and politics. He manipulates people at a national level to get things done for himself. Yasmin is a journalist who does Tehelka-type stings to expose the dirty secrets of the same influential folks. Manav cherishes his friend Akhilesh, who suddenly dies in a highway accident. At that time, Akhilesh is also investigating the cause of a bridge collapse that was sanctioned by the Highway minister Balram Singh. Akhilesh is the chief engineer and in charge of construction.
Manav reaches Akhilesh's town to console Sumitra. Sumitra, Akhilesh's wife, cannot get the compensation despite daily applications in government offices. She hopes to use the money to build a local school, Akhilesh's dream. Incensed, Dwarka slaps an arrogant official and gets imprisoned.
Arjun Singh is a dropout from Dwarka's school and now a local goon who fights the government for local causes. He tries to help Dwarka, but he refuses any help from him on principle. Manav returns to the town and starts a campaign to free him, using social media, roping in Arjun Singh and Yasmin. Arjun uses his local muscle to mobilize one lakh people on the streets and Yasmin covers the story to make it national news in a fight against corruption.
The chief minister urges Balram to act (he is the local MLA as well), and Balram frees Dwarka the same day. Balram also offers him the check to clear Akhilesh's compensation dues, but Dwarka refuses the payment and gives Balram 30 days to clear the dues of each and every petitioner in the district. Dwarka is obliged by Manav's efforts to free him and he announces that he feels he has found his son back.
While this is going on, Yasmin uses Akhilesh's computer at home and finds his resignation letter mentioning some confidential report. She mentions it to Manav but they decide not to pursue.
Now Arjun, Manav and Yasmin join hands to gather the records of all the claims submitted in the district. Manav devises the strategy and Arjun puts together the manpower to execute the same. The campaign is massively successful and Balram panics. He orders lathi-charge on peaceful gatherings organized by the Dwarka camp. He also arrests Manav and tells him that he has exposed his corrupt business dealings and next time Manav will be shipped out dead.
This expose kills the Dwarka campaign as public loses all trust in Manav and hence Dwarka. In response Manav sells his company and returns the money to his shareholders and returns to Dwarka and apologizes for using incorrect means to grow his business. The campaign goes back on track and gathers steam. The chief minister and Balram invite Manav and Dwarka for talks. During talks Balram takes Manav aside and tells him that the bridge that collapsed had a design fault and Akhilesh was responsible for it. Manav investigates by accessing Akhilesh's work computer and finds that days before his accident, Akhilesh had written a report to the Chief Minister implicating Balram's brother Sangram Singh for the collapse of the bridge as the contracting agency by using cheap and substandard material. He further investigates and finds that Sangram Singh was directly involved in the truck accident that killed Akhilesh. It wasn't an accident, Akhilesh was killed.
Manav approaches the Home Minister who advises Manav to drop the Chief Minister from his complaint to allow him to take action against Sangram. Sangram is arrested. But the Govt still refuses to take action on clearing the claims and dues, so Dwarka decides to go on hunger strike. The hunger strike forces the Chief Minister to invite Manav for talks, but Balram is no mood to compromise. He refuses to support any anti-corruption ordinance and his eight MLAs who support the Govt are crucial to its survival. As Dwarka continues his hunger strike, he gets sick. In response some of his supporters kill some policemen. In response, Balram sends in the CRPF forces. Now Arjun cordons off the entire town from within and refuses entry to central forces, as the town descends into chaos, Balram orders the killing of Dwarka. Manav is also shot while trying to save him. Dwarka dies, Balram is arrested and Manav and Arjun join hands to launch a political party to change the system from within.
