Harish Mishra, played by Amitabh Bachchan, is a passionate theatre artist who lives and breathes Shakespeare plays and even remembers them by heart. He is against modern cinema and their style of portraying stories and thinks theatre is the one and only highest form for actors and directors to convey a strong message to the world. Harish has spent thirty years and nine months on the stage and had suddenly decided to quit. He gets sick and bedridden and goes into a coma.
Harish’s co-star Shabnam, played by Preity Zinta decides to visit him during Diwali. He is being cared for by Vandana, played by Shefali Shah and by a nurse named Ivy, played by Divya Dutta. Vandana is of the opinion that Harish’s condition is such because of the kind of work he did and blames Shabnam and her cast and crew for putting him through so much. But later they are deeply involved in a conversation with each other.
Harish had previously signed up for a film with director Siddharth who had to first win the veteran actor’s trust to start working with him. They began shooting in the beautiful serena Mussoorie and there he meets Shabnam and teaches her all about Shakespeare and lessons on life. The movie is directed by Rituparno Ghosh and produced by Arindam Chaudhuri. The music is composed by Raja Narayan Deb and Sanjoy Das.
