A talented young Indian cricket player must defy his father's wishes to play for the side of England, a rebellion his siblings quietly cheer.
Gurtej Singh Kahlon witnesses his family being attacked by British-born Caucasian skinheads, leading to a death in the family. While the identified attackers were never charged by racially biased police, he himself was arrested for defending his family. He swore to change the manner in which East Indians were profiled and set about to build a Mini-India in Southall. He encourages his son, Parghat, to play and excel in cricket as he himself was a fan of the Indian team, especially Lala and his son, Mohinder Ambarnath. But when the time comes for Parghat to be inducted in the English cricket team, he forbids him, gets him to manage a convenience store, and also sets about to arrange marriages and lives of his family with no daring to oppose him. Then mixed-raced Simran Chaggal enters Parghat's life, and with some help from the Kahlon family, gets him to be included in a failing English team. They conspire to keep this information from Gurtej, and even re-name Parghat as 'Kaali'. But it will not be long before Gurtej finds out, collapses, is hospitalized, refuses to have to do anything with his son, and even refers to him as 'Angrez Chamcha'. Shameful of having hurt his father, and no one in the family to back him up, Parghat has no option but to publicly announce his 'retirement' from cricket.—rAjOo ([email protected])
During the 1979 Southall riots between British and Asians.Gurtej Singh Kalhon a Sikh fights for their equal rights of people and his community and since then no one can go against his words.His son Gattu (Parghat Singh Khalon) is an aspiring cricketer.But his dreams are shattered when Gurtej Singh doesn't allow him to play for England.Gattu now runs a supermarket and has given up on the game.Until Simran encouraged him to play again.—[email protected]
Parghat Singh Kahlon alias Gattu / Kaali (Akshay Kumar) is living the life his father Gurtej Singh Kahlon (Rishi Kapoor) chose for him. Gattu had been good at cricket and wanted to play for England though his dad would never let him become a member of the England team. His dad had told him if Gattu played for England, he would commit suicide. Gattu feels this was unfair as it was Gurtej who came to England, and now Gattu cannot play for India as he is a British citizen, and Gurtej wont allow him to play for England.
Gurtej's family was a victim of a racial attack 20 years back (On Gattu's Birthday bricks were thrown into Gurtej's home and he was threatened to leave the country) & Gurtej was arrested when he retaliated & beat up on of the assailants. The assailants walked free & killed Gurtej's father Virendra Singh Saini (Prem Chopra) in revenge. In fear, Gurtej's wife Guneet (Dimple Kapadia) cuts Gattu's hair so that he doesn't appear Sikh.
Gurtej devotes the rest of his life to fight for the rights of oppressed Sikhs in London. Slowly he opens up schools, hospitals & other facilities exclusively for Sikhs where they could live without the fear of racial abuse.
Gattu was a promising young cricket player at the age of 17 & had an invitation to play for the England team in the Ashes series. But Gurtej was the leader of the Sikh anti racial movement & could not be seen as supporting the whites in anyway. So, he publicly withdraws his son from playing cricket for England ever again. This broke Gattu's heart & spirit & he simply followed the life that Gurtej laid out for him & started running a grocery store.Gatti still loves Cricket and goes to practice at a stadium in his Southall neighborhood every morning.
Gattu's siblings Aman (Rabbit Sack C), Jaskaran 'Jassi' Singh (Arman Kirmani), cousin Puneet, Dimple Bua (Soni Razdan), Harleen Chachi (Neelu Kohli), Ashpreet (Simi Melwani), Manmeet (Maya Sarao) and Komal (Hard Kaur) hated him as he was an exemplary son in the house & because of Gattu's act they were also always told not to confront Gurtej & to simply follow his orders to maintain peace in the house.Manmeet is ready to be married, but every time the groom and his family are scared away due to Gurtej's frequent run-ins with the law.The community tries to explain to Gurtej that now everything has changed, but Guneet defends him saying that it is Gurtej who has changed things for Sikhs in England.
Gattu was always alone until Zeeshan (Devansh Daswani), and his sister Simran (Anushka Sharma) come into his life. Simran is a friend of Gattu's cousin & they meet at a wedding. Simran is very outspoken & respects Gattu as he sacrificed his life for the happiness of his father.
In the present day, Gattu gets another chance to fulfill his dream, when the England team selection committee convenes an emergency meeting to find a fast bowler. The team has been performing badly and the selection committee needed to make some changes for the upcoming T20 World Cup to be played in England. Mr. Bedi (Tinu Anand) is on the selection committee & had seen Gattu practice in the stadium in front of his house every night for the last 17 years. Nasser Hussain supports Bedi as Nasser had been dismissed by Gattu 3 times during a local exhibition match.Bedi approaches Gattu to come for the tryouts for the English cricket team. Zeeshan was with Gattu at the time, and he relays the offer to Simran.
Gattu realizes that his approach to keeping silent at all the injustice at the hands of Gurtej is harming his siblings, as they believe that nobody will listen to their ambitions, if Gurtej's own son does not have the courage to speak up in front of him.Manmeet wants to sing rap but is reduced to singing religious songs. Puneet wants to be a chef but is cooking Jalebis in Southall. Aman wants to be a filmmaker but is driving a cab.Simran and his siblings convince Gattu to give it a shot. Simran & Gattu's siblings canvass the entire neighborhood & convince everyone to lie to Gurtej so that Gurtej never finds out about Gattu playing cricket on the English cricket team.
If Gattu gets on the team, their father might be able to realize that the world isn't as racist as it used to be. As he gets on the team, they hide the fact that Gattu is on the team. Initially Gattu is a flop on the big arena in his first match against the Australians. But regroups for the next game against West Indies & takes England to the finals of the world T20 cup.
But Gurtej eventually finds out. Seeing his son on a team he despises, gives him a heart attack and he ends up in the Emergency Room. Gattu plays cricket anyway for his siblings. He is deeply hurt to be disgraced by his father, but he also loves cricket and hopes to change his father.
The people of Southall all come together and try to convince Gurtej that it is okay to be a cricket player for England. He locks himself inside the house where his wife tells him that she has never acted as a mother, only as a wife and often forgot she was both. She turns on the T.V. wanting to see her son fulfill his dream. Gurtej watches with her and realizes how badly he had treated his son.
The family comes back in the house and Gurtej requests for one of them to drive him to the stadium. Gattu is playing poorly because he is so upset that his father disgraced him. Only at the last ball of the game, Gattu manages to win the championship for England. His father compares his bowling to Late Lala Amarnath. His father apologizes to him and Gattu's siblings are now able to follow their dreams.
