A bootlegger sets out to improve his community as a promising leader but falls in a political trap.
The film is set in the early 80's and 90's in Gujarat. The fictitious story of a man who builds an empire in the state of Gujarat, the only state that still follows prohibition. It's a story about his rise and his relationships, which help him become the single most powerful man in the state.—RedChillies
Raees (Shah Rukh Khan), from Fatehpur, Gujarat gets involved in illegal liquor trade at a very young age. Along with Sadiq (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), Raees works for a notorious gangster Jairaj (Atul Kulkarni), smuggles alcohol illegally by bribing the police. Though he is a smuggler, he lives by the philosophy, as taught by his mother (Sheeba Chaddha) that every occupation is good, and no religion is greater than any occupation till it does not cause any harm to anyone. He decides to part ways with Jairaj and start operating on his own as he feels he does all the work and yet the profits go to Jairaj. when Raees approaches Jairaj with his intentions, Jairaj insults him by exposing the reality that Raees has no money to start a business & Jairaj refuses to finance him. In addition Jairaj gives Raees 72 hrs to come up with the cash to buy the liquor from him.
Raees tries to sell goats in Mumbai to make extra cash, which pits him against Musabhai, whose goons control the meat trade. Raees beats them all & he meets Musabhai (Narendra Jha) and Nawab (Jaideep Ahlawat) in Mumbai, who agree to finance Raees and with their help he starts his bootlegging business. Raees then decides to buy liquor directly from Jairaj's suppliers, thereby cutting his business. Meanwhile, an honest police offer of the IPS cadre, J. A. Majmudar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), wants to end this illegal liquor trade.
Raees is already in love with Aasiya (Mahira Khan) and she accepts the proposal to marry him and the two soon get married. Majmudar gets transferred to Fatehpur, and starts a major crackdown on alcohol dealers. All the dealers decide to collaborate except Raees. Majmudar continues to gather intelligence about Raees, and Raees consistently find ways to avert him and continues on with his trade. Due to his differences with Raees, Jairaj tries to get Raees killed. Musa informs Raees about Jairaj's attempt and Raees survives by killing Jairaj and his associates at a bar, thus his philosophy gets broken.
Majmudar gets transferred from Fatehpur to Kutch. Gujarat's Chief Minister (Pramod Pathak) and Pashabhai (Uday Tikekar), dealing with politics supports Raees for liquor and money. With his money, intelligence and tact, Raees wins over the administration. He also assists his community by offering employment to women to sew cloth bags, which he uses to smuggle alcohol and get them delivered to homes. In the meantime, Aasiya delivers a baby boy. Raees is offered a project by the Chief Minister to eliminate the illegal occupants at a land and construct a housing project. Still a hindrance to Raees' business, Raees manages to get Majmudar transferred to control room department, where he thinks he won't be able to impact his business at all.
However, tables turn with Majmudar's transfer as he starts listening in to all the Raees' telephonic conversations and get the updates of his every move. Pashabhai plans a march to end illicit liquor trade, as a part of his election campaign, which would pass through Raees' area. Raees assaults him during the march. The CM advises Raees to go to jail for a while for his act but assures he would get all the facilities and carry on his trade from there. While still locked up, the CM and Pasha form an alliance, that could potentially wipe out Raees's whole business. To counter them, Raees decides to fight the election from jail and wins.
Raees visits the location of the housing project with his wife and paints a picture of tall houses, where children would fly kites from rooftops; an English medium school where children would speak fluent English; a hospital in Raees' mother's name. He dreams that there would be abundance in the air of that locality, where there would be no poverty or hunger; where every morning would be Eid and each night a Diwali. He reaches out to people in his locality to invest in his project by offering them homes, where they can pay in installments. Meanwhile, Majmudar gets transferred back to Fatehpura as SP - Crime.
Communal riots break out in the state. People start running out of food. Raees dispatches free food to four localities the city, which takes a heavy economic toll on Raees. Considering Raees a threat, the CM puts Raees housing project in green zone. The construction of the project comes to a halt, as it is banned by the government. Raees suddenly finds himself broke with all his money dwindled on housing project, elections and dispatching food supplies.
Moosa offers to help Raees by offering him money for an assignment to smuggle gold from Doha. Raees returns the money of all his investors in the housing project. News breaks that there have been five serial bomb blasts in north India, killing several people. Police investigations lead to Raees, where the gold he smuggled, contained RDX and Raees was unaware of this fact. Raees is morally devastated by this shock. Majmudar wants to arrest Raees but considers he might escape due to the corrupt system. Raees kills Moosa for betraying his trust and killing innocent people to incite communal riots. Majmudar orders his officers to shoot Raees at sight, but Raees brings press with him and surrenders and is well aware Majmudar would kill him. Majmudar takes him to an isolated place and shoots him. As he is being shot, Raees experiences a dramatic flashback of his entire life as he falls down dead.
