The film tells the story of two unusual friends, a wheelchair-bound chess grandmaster and a grief-stricken ATS officer, who are brought together by a peculiar twist of fate as part of a wider conspiracy that has cast a dark shadow over their lives.[4] The game of chess is a recurring metaphor and forms the backbone of the story.[5] The first shot was taken on 28 September 2014 in Mumbai.[6] The trailer of the film was released on 18 November 2015, [7] and the film was released worldwide on 8 January 2016.[8]
The film received mixed reviews from critics.[9]
Anti-Terrorism Squad(ATS) officer Daanish Ali(Farhan Akhtar) lives a blissful life with his wife Ruhana(Aditi Rao Hydari) and little daughter Noorie. One day, while Daanish is driving with Noorie, he spots a known terrorist, Farooq Rameez, driving by and chases him. Rameez and his gang ambush Daanish’s vehicle and Noorie is killed in the ensuing firefight while Rameez escapes.
Ruhana is shattered and blames Daanish for Noorie’s death, completely shutting him out from her life. Daanish moves to his friend and colleague Sartaj’s house where Sartaj gives him sleeping pills; however, Daanish overhears Sartaj discussing Rameez’s location with their superintendent SP(John Abraham). Unexpectedly, Daanish then turns up at Rameez’s location while a police operation is ongoing and starts a shootout, eventually killing Rameez. The ATS bosses are enraged as they wanted to capture Rameez alive and find out which politician intelligence sources say he was in Delhi to meet. Daanish is sent away on medical leave.
Ruhana meets Daanish at the drama’s rehearsal and the Pandit tells her how Daanish had almost committed suicide and how the Pandit himself had lost his wife in a driving accident, leaving him with no-one to share his grief when Nina died. Meanwhile, Qureshi threatens Ruhi for talking to Daanish, warning her to never do so again. The police close Nina’s case file, despite the Pandit’s protest. The Pandit awaits Qureshi’s cavalcade and throws his shoe at Qureshi’s car, breaking the minister’s red beacon. That night, the Pandit is attacked by Wazir(Neil Nitin Mukesh), an assassin sent by Qureshi. Wazir brutally attacks Pandit with a knife and sets his wheelchair and chess set on fire. He also warns Pandit and Daanish to stop chasing Qureshi. Even more determined, Daanish persuades Sartaj to tap Qureshi’s phone. As Qureshi travels to Kashmir, Wazir repeatedly phones Daanish and taunts him, pressuring him to stop Pandit from following Qureshi to KashmirA few days later, while watching the Pandit’s dance-drama enacted by kids, Daanish realises that the Pandit was in fact the play’s’weak pawn’ who befriended a’strong rook’(Daanish) who would kill a’wicked king’(Qureshi). Daanish leaves and rushes to find the Pandit’s housekeeper, Pammi, who say she didn’t actually see Wazir on the night he supposedly attacked the Pandit. Pammi gives Daanish a USB stick fashioned out of a queen chess piece(which the Pandit had told her to give him if he came looking for’Wazir’). On the USB is a video of the Pandit explaining what he did. Daanish realises that Wazir never existed and was just a persona made up by the Pandit, who knew he was powerless against Qureshi. The Pandit intentionally dropped his wallet near Noorie’s grave, so Daanish could find it and then befriend him. All the Pandit’s knife wounds were self-inflicted, and he had used voice recordings to pose as Wazir. The Pandit knew that he would have to sacrifice himself in order to ensure that Daanish would kill Qureshi and take revenge for both of them. Daanish and Ruhana are then reunited.