When an innocent man aspiring to be a musician is framed for committing a murder, he decides to form a music band with his co-prisoners for a competition, but his real intention seems to be different.
The story is set in the backdrop of a jail, with music at its core. Walls might muffle them but cages only reverberate them louder. Situated deep in the heartland of India, within the by-lanes of Lucknow is story of a man who had something to say. Or should we say sing.
Kishen Mohan Girhotra (Farhan Akhtar) is a young man who belongs to Moradabad, a city in Uttar Pradesh. Kishen is an aspiring singer and is waiting for his big break. He compiles his songs and wants to get them to a local IAS officer. but Kishen is roughly manhandled by the security and his CD is destroyed in the process. Kishen curses and threatens the IAS officer in public. That same night Kishen sees the IAS officer stranded in a deserted locality, with his car broken down. But Kishen does not stop to help him. The next day he finds out that the IAS officer has been murdered and Kishen is the prime accused.
One fateful day, Kishen gets accused of murder which lands him in Moradabad Jail where is awarded life sentence. Kishen is put in jail, after his good friend (who was with Kishen that night), is tortured by the police and becomes an eyewitness for the police. But the victim's family appeals in High court for the death penalty and Kishen is transferred to Lucknow Central.Gayatri runs an NGO in Moradabad jail. The IG of UP is told by a politician to organize a jail inmate music band competition in Lucknow Central. Gayatri meets IG for permission to operate in Lucknow Central but is told that she can start a musical band there. when Kishen overhears this, he begs Gayatri to come to Lucknow and take the offer to start the band. forming a band is Kishen only passion in life.
Meanwhile, a diligent NGO worker Gayatri Kashyap (Diana Penty), is compelled to form a Band of Prisoners for the band competition which is to be held in the dreaded jail of 'Lucknow Central' that year and this is how Kishen's and her paths cross.Kishen befriends four other inmates, namely Dikkat Ansari (Inaamulhaq), Victor Chattopahdyay (Deepak Dobriyal), Purushottam Pandit (Rajesh Sharma), Parminder Trehan (Gippy Grewal) and convinces them to join the band. They are initially reluctant, but Kishen narrates to them how they could use the Band competition to plan their escape from the jail. Kishen reveals that he has conducted a thorough mapping of the jail and knows its weaknesses.
Purushottam Pandit is the head of the sewing division inside the jail and does not report into the boss of the jail mafia. The Jail mafia tries to recruit Kishen, but he resists. But after months of harassment, he has to give in and is ordered to kill Purushottam. Kishen aligns with Purushottam instead and stands up to the mafia boss. Parminder is part of the mafia gang but joins Kishen when he stands up to the mafia boss.The band is complete, but the first training session goes badly as there is absolutely no coordination among the singers.
The Jailer (Ronit Roy) knows that the band is a cover for an escape plan, but is overruled by the IG, who has his own problems. The Jailer asks the team to perform, as he intends to tape the bad performance to make his case to scrap the band. But the Band ends up performing very well and Jailer is stumped. He releases the video by doctoring it and claiming that the band is lip syncing. As the video goes viral, the public loves it and the CM forces the IG and the Jailer to continue supporting the band and even issues an order that this band should win the competition.The IG offers sops to the band in order to motivate them. Kishen doesn't ask for anything, but the rest take paroles. Gayathri is intrigued by this and investigates the circumstances of Kishen's conviction and finds that the entire case stood on the statement of Kishen's good friend. Gayathri asks Kishen about what happened that night, but Kishen refuses to say anything as it won't change anything.
Then Kishen starts a fight in the jail and gets him and whole band locked up in solitary, but that was just a ruse as the escape route goes through the solitary confinement room. Everything is in place for the band to escape on the night of the competition. But Kishen sees how the entire jail is pinning their hopes on the band. Kishen steels his mind and puts his escape plan into motion. But the Jailer gets a whiff of their plan and finds the band gone from the confinement cell while the competition is in progress.
The band reaches the escape point, but the rest of band only urges Kishen to escape as they all know he is innocent. Kishen refuses to escape, and the entire band performs in the competition and wins it. Later, Kishen's friend re-submits his statement in court and absolves Kishen of all responsibility in the murder. Kishen is released while the Lucknow central band continues to perform till date.
