Kartavya

A police officer must hunt an exploited teenage assassin while his own family collapses under caste driven violence and moral absolutism, forcing him toward irreversible choices between institutional loyalty and blood ties. Station House Officer Pawan Malik works in a volatile border town under pressure after a failed protection mission leaves a journalist dead. Assigned to capture a teenage shooter linked to a powerful spiritual leader, he uncovers a network of manipulation that turns children into disposable weapons. At home, his brother secretly elopes with a woman from a marginalized caste, triggering a lethal response from their community. Malik shelters them while pursuing the case, but trust fractures within his own ranks. His closest colleague betrays him, and the two crises merge into a single eruption of violence that destroys his family and forces him to arrest his own father. Pawan Malik (Saif Ali Khan) is an inspector of the Jhamli Police Department, who shares a personal moment with a few of his close subordinates, who have organized a small party to celebrate Pawan turning 40. The subordinates even gift their boss a brand-new pair of white sneakers, which happen to be Pawan's favorite, and in return, he arranges for a treat for them. But Pawan and his constable, Ashok (Sanjay Mishra), who also happens to be very good friends, do not have time to partake in such merriment, for they have been assigned a specific duty, even at this late hour. They are supposed to go meet a woman named Reema Dutta (Radhika Chauhan) at the Jhamli railway station and escort her to the hotel she and her team will be staying at. Reema is an investigative journalist who has been preparing a report on a religious institution named Anand Bhoomi, and it is to visit this very institution that she and two other journalists in her team have come to Jhamli. But the fact of the matter is that Anand Bhoomi, and its leader, a god-man named Anand Shri (Saurabh Dwivedi), are highly revered and loved in this small backward town, and so the commoners would definitely not take kindly to an outsider journalist stepping into their home to slander their religious and spiritual guru. It is for this very reason that the police have had to ensure extra protection for Reema, and Pawan has been assigned to lead her security detail. It initially looks like just a routine mission, as Pawan and Ashok simply drive their van behind the car that is taking Reema to her hotel, through the deserted roads late at night. However, things go wrong very quickly, as a motorcycle suddenly pulls up in front of the civilian car, blocking its path, and two shooters launch a devastating attack on the journalists. Reema Dutta and her team are killed in an instant, and although Pawan is able to shoot down one of the perpetrators, the main shooter gets away. Pawan's boss, Keshav (Manish Chaudhari), is livid at him the next day, not really for being unable to protect the journalist, but for failing at his job, which has now brought national media attention, and therefore a huge deal of scrutiny, to Jhamli. Pawan begs for a chance to prove himself. Pawan also has to go through a difficult time in his personal life when he returns home to learn that his younger brother, Deepak (Saurabh Abrol), is missing. He is suspected of running away with Preeti, a girl of a different caste, as Preeti's brother came complaining to Pawan's father. The assassination of Reema Dutta is directly linked to her latest work, which was to investigate and expose the horrific crimes Anand Shri was carrying out inside his ashram, Anand Bhoomi, Anand Shri is actually involved in a lot of criminal acts, mostly with regards to young boys. According to Reema's initial findings, Anand Shri is known for taking young boys away from their homes to keep as servants at his ashram, where they are tortured, exploited and overworked. The god-man clearly molests and assaults the boys, and then also forces them to work for him without compensation. Later on, it is revealed that Anand Shri often 'blesses' devotees with children, especially those couples who have been trying to become parents for long. This is because Anand Shri clearly states that the parents must give up their children to the ashram as soon as they turn 10. This not only ensures that he has a steady flow of workers at his cult, but also that the local population remains subservient to him forever, as he does not let the children be educated enough to question his methods. Anand Shri is willing to make the young boys at his service do just about anything, including committing murders to save his reputation. The gunman who shot down Reema Dutta and has been absconding ever since is just a 16-year-old boy named Harpal (Yudhvir Ahlawat). Harpal had been given away to the ashram by his parents when he was 10, following which he was radicalized by the teachings of Anand Shri. When the god-man realized that the journalist was not just investigating him, but also coming to Jhamli to expose him, he made a plan to have her assassinated by his minions. Harpal had been begging Anand Shri to let him return home. Anand Shri realized that the boy was desperate to do anything for his freedom and assigned him to commit the murder. Despite having been brainwashed into committing a murder for Anand Shri, Harpal remains intelligent enough to know that he too will soon be killed by the god-man's men, since they would obviously want to wipe out all connection between themselves and the crime. Therefore, Harpal manages to flee the gunmen who are sent by Anand Shri, and is almost able to flee the state, but he gets caught by the police. Pawan's personal life is entirely based around caste discrimination and honor killing. In the village of Jhamli, where Pawan lives with his father Harihar (Zakir Hussain), brother, wife Varsha (Rasika Dugal) and son, honor killing is a very common matter, where the village elders have often called for the murder of young couples who get involved in inter-caste love affairs. Turns out, Pawan's younger brother, Deepak, is now involved in an inter-caste relationship, for which the villagers now want to kill him and his lover, Preeti (Suraksha Gaire). After realizing that neither of their families would approve of their relationship, Deepak and Preeti had fled the village and holed up at some shady motel. Since Pawan's wife, Varsha, never believed in the conservative ideas of the villagers, even though she did have to abide by them, Deepak had sought help from her and she had helped him escape. Pawan decides to help them. Since Deepak and Preeti have also gotten legally married, to start a new life together, Pawan considers it best for the couple to flee the village forever and remain underground for at least the next 10 to 15 years. Back at the village, Preeti's brother has already filed a complaint with the village elders, blaming Deepak for having forcefully abducted his sister from their house. The elders decide to get hold of the couple and kill them, with Deepak's father agreeing to this horrid plan as well, since he feels that the justice system in place at the village is very appropriate. Pawan finally agrees to take the help of his constable, Ashok, who offers to let Deepak and Preeti move into his aunt's old house in the town, which has been abandoned for the past few years. Thus, the couple move into the house, with the blessings of Pawan and Varsha. After young Harpal is caught by the state police and handed over to Pawan for interrogation, his strong morals and clear conscience make him treat the boy with utmost care and protection. Pawan knows that Harpal cannot be entirely blamed for the murder of Reema Dutta, since he had been forced to carry out the act for Anand Shri. He is also aware that this is exactly what the god-man and the corrupt police department working for him will try to do, by claiming Harpal to be the sole perpetrator who had acted of his own will. Despite Harpal officially confessing everything to Pawan, the latter is unable to file a report based on this confession, as he is stopped by his boss. Keshav, who is just a stooge for the higher-ups and politicians he serves, does not want to stir up any trouble with Anand Shri and his Anand Bhoomi, and so he is desperate to ensure that no link can be found between the murder of Reema Dutta and the religious cult. Pawan refuses to let the boy leave his sight, even standing up to the orders of Keshav and risking his job as a police inspector in the process. Harpal, being just a few years older than his own son, Honey, also plays a role in his decision to protect him. Ultimately, Keshav seems to suddenly have a change of heart, and he allows Pawan to slip Harpal out of the state and help him start a new life in Delhi. Ashok offers to drive the boy out of the state so that Pawan can concentrate on saving his brother and helping them move into his aunt's house. Ashok betrays Pawan's trust on multiple levels, beginning with the disgraceful act that he carries out with Harpal. After leaving Jhamli, Ashok had gotten in touch with Anand Shri's goons, essentially agreeing to hand the boy over to them before crossing the state border. Once the handover took place, and the goons failed to kill Harpal, as the boy had made a run to save himself, Ashok himself shot and killed him, using the gun assigned to him by the police force to help protect citizens. He then outright lied to Pawan and could also be seen quickly moving away when Pawan tried calling Harpal on the phone he had given the boy, possibly because Ashok had stolen the phone, along with the money that Keshav had given Harpal. After Pawan figures out what had happened and confronts Ashok, he realizes that his close friend and favorite constable had betrayed him. Ashok had been a victim to the orthodox and cruel customs of the village, being a part of the same toxic society. He also belonged to the same caste as Preeti and her brother, and so was not at all happy at her elopement with Deepak. But he also had to play out the role of the police constable, hiding his real thoughts and motives from Pawan, who he did look up to, but eventually considered a foolish man stuck on fighting lost battles. Thus, when Ashok helped Deepak and Preeti move into a house in the town, his intention was to get hold of the couple's location and inform the village elders about it. When he considered it to be the right time, Ashok had told the villagers about Deepak and Preeti and had taken them to their house, before partaking in the lynching of the couple. Pawan confronts Keshav about the location of Harpal, still believing that Ashok did not betray him. Pawan had decided to take matters into his own hands instead of relying on the law. The confession of Harpal, which he had documented but could not file because of Keshav's pressure, became crucial to him, and also to Anand Shri, since the document could still expose his secrets, even though he had had Harpal killed. Anand Shri had sent his goons to Pawan's house to get hold of the document, and they had given the police inspector some more time to hand it over, threatening to kill him and his family otherwise. The goon informs Pawan that Harpal is already dead, and informs Pawan that Ashok was the one who killed him. Now, Pawan pretends to have finally changed his mind, calls Anand Shri's henchman to meet him so that he can hand over the confession document, and then kills them. He also confronts and kills Ashok soon after, making it look like the two sides had killed each other in a police encounter. Before dying Ashok tells Pawan that his father slit Deepak's throat. As the police arrive at the scene, Pawan tells the officers everything, about how he had Harpal's confession and Anand Shri's men had attacked him for the document, ensuring that the document actually gets filed as evidence before Keshav can come and intervene. Pawan then returns home and arrests his own father.