Kundan Shankar (Dhanush) is the only son of Tamil Hindu Brahmin parents settled in Varanasi. Since his childhood, Kundan has had a strong and obsessive one-sided love for Zoya (Sonam Kapoor), a Muslim girl residing in the other neighborhood, whom he had seen doing namaaz in his teacher's house while he went to collect chanda or donation for Hindu festival, Dussehra. He always attempts to flirt or be around Zoya but gets slapped several times in the process. These acts of courtship from him were being done even without knowing Zoya's name. Zoya finally reveals her name after repeated asking and starts to like him a bit because of Kundan's consistency of affection and tells him to meet at a place. When they meet, she comes to know that Kundan is a Hindu brahmin and starts to avoid again because her family is orthodox, and she is sure that they won't agree for any intimate relationship like marriage. Her family comes to know that Zoya is liking some Hindu guy, and they decide to send Zoya to Aligarh for further studies. After Zoya moves to College for further studies forcefully, Kundan tries to impress Zoya's family members by assisting them with small-small home chores. Zoya gets into Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and discovers a long-lost strength as she confronts and then falls for student leader, Akram Zaidi (Abhay Deol).