Atrangi Re 2021

Rinku Suryavanshi, Sara Ali Khan, is chased by her family’s goons at Siwan Junction as she tries to elope with her long-time boyfriend. She’s caught and beaten by her grandmother, Dulhayen, Seema Biswas, who orders her to wed any bachelor to rid the family of the trouble. The next day, Rinku’s aunt serves her drugged kheer meant to mark her parents’ death anniversary, a chilling reminder of the family’s extreme influence.

S. Venkatesh Vishwanath “Vishu” Iyer, Dhanush, a Tamilian doctor briefly visiting with his friend Madhusudan “MS,” a psychiatrist, is abducted along with Rinku by uncles who intend to seize MS. The two men are drugged and forcibly married, then transported to New Delhi by train. There, Vishu and Rinku discover that they both oppose the marriage and each harbors a separate love life: Vishu is about to marry his friend Mandakini “Mandy,” Dimple Hayathi, in two days, while Rinku’s boyfriend Sajjad Ali Khan, a performing artist and magician, is set to arrive in the city in a week.

The two spend a day in a hostel where Vishu lives, and Rinku opens up about the fire that destroyed her parents’ life—an act she ties to Dulhayen’s manipulations. They travel to Madurai for Vishu’s impending wedding, but Mandy discovers a video showing their forced union and calls off the ceremony. Vishu, furious at Mandy’s father for misbehaving with Rinku, leaves in a flare of anger and sadness.

Back in Delhi, Vishu realizes that his feelings for Rinku have grown stronger than his arranged future with Mandy. Yet Sajjad has already arrived, and Rinku flees to meet him. Vishu tasks MS with ensuring Rinku’s safety; in a startling twist, it becomes clear that Sajjad is not merely a lover from Rinku’s stories but a phantom figure born from her psyche. MS speculates that Sajjad might be someone from Rinku’s childhood, while Rinku’s burgeoning love for Vishu creates guilt—if she loves Vishu, Sajjad would have nothing left to exist for. He runs to find Vishu in the operating theatre and urges him to consider the threat Sajjad poses.

Vishu and MS hatch a plan to medicate Rinku and drive Sajjad away, hoping that as Rinku’s mental health improves, Sajjad will fade. A drunken kiss between Rinku and Vishu triggers Sajjad’s perception of the moment, and the doctor-turned-medicine man’s plan unfolds as he witnesses the supposed magical trick fall apart. In the ensuing confusion, Vishu confesses his love for Rinku, declaring that she is his wife and that he must stand by her.

Sajjad’s sense of threat grows, and he attempts suicide. MS and Vishu rush him to the “operating room,” where MS instructs Vishu to consider telling Rinku that Sajjad died on the table. Vishu resists, insisting on a different course. The following day, Rinku refuses divorce, telling Vishu she wants both Sajjad and Vishu in her life. The two men become entangled in a desperate plan to resolve the tangled loyalties.

A journey to the Delhi Junction railway station becomes the stage for a final test. Sajjad, traveling to Japan for a show, promises to wait for Rinku at the station, asking her to choose between running away with him or returning to Vishu. At the station, Rinku encounters Sajjad with a little girl who she believes to be her younger self. Sajjad tells her she should go to Vishu, and that this time, he will not come back. In that moment, a flashback unfurls a devastating truth: Sajjad is indeed Rinku’s father. He had run away with her mother, Manjari, married and fathered Rinku; the Suryavanshis had pursued the family, Sajjad was jailed, and Manjari attended his performances with Rinku. In a brutal turn of events, Sajjad’s firewalking performance is sabotaged as real fuel is substituted for the stage’s artificial fuel, immolating Sajjad in front of a young Rinku. Manjari witnesses the tragedy and dies trying to save him, leaving young Rinku to carry the memory of Sajjad into adulthood.

The revelation shatters the constructed illusion, and Vishu and MS realize the depth of Rinku’s paracosm. In the emotional climax, Sajjad disappears from view, and Rinku rushes back to Vishu, who has been distributing sweets and announcing that his wife has returned. The story closes on a note of fragile reconciliation: Vishu carries Rinku, in a gesture that mirrors Sajjad’s past, signaling that their bond has finally found its form amid the shadows of a shared history.