The story is set in the backdrop of rural India. Thakur Bhanupratap Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) is the head of the "Sooryavansh" kinfolk, an aristocratic family in the village of Bharatpur where he is also the distinguished Sarpanch of the local Gram panchayat. Thakur Bhanupratap has 3 sons and a strained relationship with the youngest one, Heera, (Amitabh Bachchan, in a dual role) since he is illiterate. However, Heera has intense respect for his father.

One day, Sita (Soundarya), whose brother is engaged to Heera's sister, visits the house. She notices that although Heera is son of Thakur Bhanupratap Singh, he is treated as a servant in the house. She gets to know from Dharmendra (Anupam Kher) that in his childhood, Heera was a dunce and always earned very poor marks in his school examinations, to face his strict father's wrath. Heera actually did not go to school for knowledge, his sole purpose of attending school was meeting his classmate Gauri – the girl adopted by Thakur Bhanupratap after the demise of her parents. Once a teacher severely punished Gauri, and Heera, in a fit of rage, struck the teacher and bolted away along with Gauri. Heera thus became a school dropout and never continued his studies, whereas Gauri proceeded with her studies while maintaining a well-disposed relationship with Heera.