Khatta Meetha 2010

In Satara, Sachin Tichkule, Akshay Kumar, a petty road-works contractor, faces a tight squeeze when the Satara Municipal Corporation withholds his payments, pushing him to sue for the money he’s owed and try to keep his life on track.

His family roots run deep: his father Ramakanth, a brother, three sisters (Anjali among them and unmarried), and two brothers‑in‑law, Suhas and Trigun, all under one roof with mum Sheetal as the glue that holds them together. The kinship web is thick, and the drama around a family palace adds another layer of tension—the palace can be sold only with the agreement of all brothers and sisters, a rule that weighs heavily on everyone.

On his construction site, Rangeela, a worker Rajpal Yadav tells Sachin to curb material usage, highlighting the constant pressure to cut costs. Sachin, meanwhile, has debts to landowners like Karodimal, Govardhan Asrani, who keeps hounding him for dues.

A catastrophe changes everything: a recently collapsed bridge claims 65 lives. The bridge had been built by Suhas, Trigun and Harish, who are corrupted by shortcuts in cement and iron and who are steered by a local politician, Rana, Jaideep Ahlawat. Rana engineers a cover story by steering the blame toward the family driver Vishwas Rao, a ploy arranged to gain a quick, costly release for the conspirators in court. When Vishwas admits guilt, the trio fears he might spill the truth someday, so they have him killed and stage his suicide. An observer, Azad Bhagat, who lost his wife and daughter in the disaster, senses the conspiracy and begins to connect the dots.

Into this maelstrom steps Gehna Ganpule, the new Municipal Commissioner and Sachin’s estranged girlfriend from Mumbai. Trisha Krishnan plays her. Gehna’s past with Sachin is loaded: in college he was a Gandhiwadi leader, protesting management’s decisions to hire teachers for donations and then firing them; Gehna stood up to his hectoring stance and even challenged him when he defied norms, which left a scar on their relationship. Her current stance is clear—she intends to blacklist him, and she is not afraid to stand her ground.

Rangeela’s proximity to Gehna’s life continues to complicate matters. He’s allowed to cook at Gehna’s house because the site is nearby, and he even witnesses Gehna bathing, an incident her brother quickly prevents Rangeela from repeating. Sachin, unaware of the full backstory, only sees Rangeela’s injuries and lashes out, pulling Gehna’s brother into a police spotlight. The ensuing clash brings the Police Inspector into the fray, Anupam Bhattacharya, and a confrontation that strains everyone involved.

Rana, meanwhile, has his own designs on Anjali, Sachin’s sister. He courts Anjali at a party and again at the bus station, but she refuses his advances. Sachin’s men report back, and the violence in the shadows spills over as Sachin confronts Rana privately.

Despite the turmoil, Sachin wins a court case against the municipality, and the court hands him a road roller as settlement. Gehna is repulsed by the outcome and urges him to heed a sense of nationalism, but Sachin remains unmoved. That road roller proves a nightmare: it’s defective and costly to fix, and it ends up tearing into Gehna’s house, prompting Ramakanth to intervene with the police to stop further damage. The family’s horror about Sachin’s influence grows.

With finances stretched, Trigun proposes Anjali’s marriage to Rana as a way to secure wealth, and Ramakanth concedes that Sachin has no money to stop it. Anjali is married off to Rana, while Gehna, who has been scrutinizing Sachin’s roadwork, halts his project due to the shoddy output.

Gehna’s resolve hardens when Sachin frames her in a bribery case; she is arrested and, in a moment of despair, tries to take her own life. Sachin later apologizes, but the damage already lingers.

Tragedy deepens when Anjali dies in a kitchen gas cylinder explosion, a blow that heightens the stakes for everyone involved. Azad approaches Gehna, urging her to help expose Rana’s nexus. Gehna involves Sachin and goes to the media with evidence. Rana has Azad transferred, and Azad is brutally murdered. Before dying, Azad reveals that he saw Anjali being forced by Rana’s political allies and was burned alive when she attempted to escape. Rana, however, has already secured the proof, complicating the picture.

Sachin turns the tables by making Rana think the proof has been stolen, laying a trap when Rana tries to reclaim it. The ensuing confrontation ends with Rana killed in an accidental crash during the struggle. The criminal web collapses as Harish, Suhas, and Trigun are jailed. In the midst of the fallout, Ramakanth forgives Sachin, signaling a bitter, uneasy closing to a saga driven by ambition, power and the cost of keeping secrets.