The lifelong romance between Lolita (Balan) and Shekar (Khan) is upset by the arrival of another man.
Calcutta, India, circa 1962: three neighboring families live in an upper-middle-class area. Gurcharan lives in a palatial home (Haveli) with his wife and two beautiful daughters, Lalita and Koel. He is retired; unable to find suitable work, he must live off his savings, and he ends up mortgaging his house with his neighbor, Navinchandra Roy, and hopes to get his daughters married within his means; there is Charu Sharma, who lives with her brother and sister-in-law, whose wealthy brother Girish lives in Britain. Finally there are the Roys: Navinchandra, a hard-nosed businessman, who will never undertake anything unless there is a high level of profit for him; his son Shekhar, whom he is grooming to succeed him; and his quiet, devout wife. Navin realizes Gurcharan's plight and offers Lalita a job at his office so the family will survive. Shekhar and Lalita are attracted to each other, but Navin does not approve, as he wants Shekhar to get married to Gayetri Tatya, the daughter of his wealthy business associate. Then chaos descends on these families when Girish returns home: he is attracted to Lalita and wants to marry her. Lalita finds out that Navin is bent on recovering his loan by evicting her family to a filthy go-down until they can find other means, and intends to build a five-star hotel. Lalita must now act quickly to get her father to return the loan amount to Navin. But how will Gurcharan get 1.50 lakhs in so short a time? Is his family destined to be evicted and face a life of destitution?—rAjOo ([email protected])
The story begins in Kolkata, with scenes from the erstwhile Calcutta in 1962 displayed along with the narrator's (Amitabh Bachchan) introduction of the era. Calcutta is a city if trams and Coffee House evenings, a hunger for social change, Goddess Kali, Rasgullas, Puchkas, Football, political debates, strikes, riots, and above all a city of Love.
The narration focuses on the night of the marriage of Shekhar (Saif Ali Khan) and Gayatri Tantiya (Diya Mirza), a rich industrialist Shyamlal's (Biplab Chatterjee) daughter who is one of his father Navin Rai's business connections. Cold at heart, Navin is a shrewd and a conniving businessman who even places human values and relationships below his greed for money. Navin owns a large construction company and Shekhar is his sole heir.Shekhar's mother Rajeshwari (Surinder Kaur) is not happy with the marriage.
Navin Rai (Sabyasachi Chakrabarty) is Shekhar's father. Shekhar is readying himself for the occasion of his marriage. While he is doing that, images of Lalita (Vidya Balan) calling him by his name flash through his mind. Downstairs, musical celebrations begin.
Shekhar goes to meet Vasundhara (Kumkum Bhattacharya), a widow from his neighborhood, who is thankful to her son-in-law, Girish (Sanjay Dutt), for supporting their family after the death of her husband, Gurcharan (Achyut Potdar). Vasundhara says that Girish wanted to meet Shekhar and asks him to wait, but Shekhar is in a hurry to leave. Shekhar assumes that Girish is married to Lalita, who is also dressed up as a married woman.
Lalita, who is present there, playfully confronts Shekhar as to why he is being indifferent to her. Shekhar admonishes her for speaking so in spite of being married. Shekhar says that Lalita is a shameless woman who betrayed him, and leaves. Parineeta means "a married woman".
An angry Shekhar comes back home to play a favorite tune from the past on his piano. The flashback shows a young Shekhar playing the Rabindranath Tagore's tune on his piano while young Lalita and Koel (Raima Sen) are around. Koel is Lalita's playful, mischievous and cheerful cousin who is lively, peppy and lives through every moment.
Lalita, with her parents having died in a car accident, lives with Gurcharan's family with Koel as her cousin and Charu (Smita Malhotra) is her neighbor. Koel is Gurcharan's daughter. Ratan (Rajesh Sharma) is Charu's brother and Sunita (Supriya Shukla) is Charu's sister-in-law.As this memory flashes across Shekhar's mind, he sings a song full of sadness and loss. As time flies, they grow up to become close friends.
A rebellious and musically inclined Shekhar spends his days playing the music of Rabindranath Tagore or Elvis Presley and composing his own songs with Lalita, rather than becoming part of his shrewd father's world of profit and business. Part of this rebellion involves resistance to meeting Gayatri Tantiya, the beautiful but devious daughter of a wealthy industrialist, whom his father would like Shekhar to marry into.Rajeshwari loves Lolita and takes care of Lolita's family as much as she can.
Meanwhile, Girish, a steel tycoon from London, makes a dramatic entry into Charu's house. Girish is the brother of Lalita's sister-in-law.Girish seems smitten by Lalita whereas Koel is by Girish. Shekhar is visibly jealous of Lalita's close friendship with Girish, as Lalita starts missing their music sessions and their regular meetings in his room.Shekhar reacts very badly to this, leading Lalita to stop spending time with Girish, but she doesn't tell Shekhar about it.
One day, a shocked Lalita, who's employed at the Rai's office, realizes of a hotel project on Gurcharan's ancestral Haveli (palatial house). On an earlier occasion, Gurcharan had borrowed money from Navin Rai after putting his Haveli on mortgage. Gurcharan had a heart attack and needed money for his medical expenses and Navin lent Rs 100,000 against the papers of the Haveli. The Haveli was worth Rs 20-22 Lakhs, but now Gurcharan was trapped. To top it off Gurcharan loses his job and his only source of income.Lalita understands that if the money is not repaid in a few months, Navin Rai would take over the property. She immediately thinks of asking Shekhar for monetary help. With interest, the amount to be repaid is now Rs 150,000.Navin plans to host the Gurcharan family for a few days in his dilapidated warehouse and plans to give him Rs 20,000 on top as good will. Navin knows that Shekhar will object to the plan and arranges to send him out of town for a business deal while this transaction is completed.
Unforeseen circumstances prevent Lalita from asking Shekhar for help. Girish upon realizing this, alleviates their problem by making Gurcharan his business partner. Gurcharan repays the debt, and the turn of events prompts Shekhar to think why Lalita chose to ask Girish for money instead of him. On one auspicious night, Shekhar and Lalita exchange garlands and consummate their "marriage" unbeknownst to anyone else.
While Shekhar is off to Darjeeling on a business trip, Navin Rai violently thunders on Lalita about the loss of his hotel project embarrassing and humiliating her. Rai gets a wall built between his and Gurcharan's house symbolizing the end of their association. Gurcharan unable to digest this faces a heart attack.
Upon Shekhar's return, Rai informs him of the ill-health of his mother and Gurcharan and viciously adds a note of Lalita and Girish's marriage. Shekhar is disgusted to hear of the marriage and in the anger, he scowls at Lalita, humiliating her like his father. In the meanwhile, Girish assists the Gurcharan family and takes them to London for the heart treatment. Misunderstandings follow and upon the family's return from London, Shekhar assumes that Girish and Lalita are married and agrees to marry Gayatri.
Returning to the present, to the night of Shekhar's marriage, when Girish hands him the ownership papers of Gurcharan's Haveli. He shocks Shekhar by telling him that he got married to Koel because Lalita denied his marriage proposal. As a conclusion, Shekhar confronts his father and symbolically breaks down the wall separating the two families. He then brings Lalita to his home as his bride much to the delight of his mother.
