Raj Malhotra and Simran Singh (Shahrukh Khan and Kajol respectively) are young first generation British Indians brought up and living in London. Raj is the only child of wealthy widower Dharamvir Malhotra (Anupam Kher), who spoils his son excessively. Raj is a free-wheeling party boy, who is the first student at his tertiary institution to fail, something which is announced at his would-be graduation ceremony. His father is not worried about this, pointing to ancestral portraits in the family mansion and noting that most failed primary school and none passed secondary school. Simran is the elder daughter of petrol station/convenience store owner Chaudhry Baldev Singh (Amrish Puri), a very socially conservative Punjabi Indian man whose only dream is to one day go back to his native Punjab. One day Raj tricks Baldev into selling him some beer after closing time by feigning an urgent need for headache medicine, making him very mad. Baldev angrily denounces Raj as a disgrace to Indians. Baldev is proud that he has managed to bring up his two daughters in a very traditional way; they respect his conservative outlook and are expected to have no contact with boys until their arranged marriage. Simran and her younger sister Rajeshwari "Chutki" are however shown to indulge in playful dancing to modern music, which they stop when Baldev comes home. Simran has not been to university, as her father will not let her. Simran constantly dreams of her Prince Charming, a stranger who comes into her life and sweeps her off her feet, and writes about him in her diary. Her mother "Lajo" (Farida Jalal) tells her not to get her hopes up. However, a letter comes from Ajit, Baldev's best friend in India saying that his son, Kuljeet (Parmeet Sethi), and Baldev's daughter, Simran, should marry each other, in accordance with a promise the two fathers had made to each other when their children were infants. Because of her "Prince Charming," Simran is concerned. She has never seen Kuljeet before, but agrees to marry him out of respect for her father. However, before the wedding, she begs her father to allow her to go on a trip to Europewith her female friends, her last chance to see the world before her marriage to a complete stranger and relocation to India. Even though he is very strict, Baldev relents and permits her to go, on the condition that she promises never to betray his trust. He says that he is allowing Simran to go as she has always respected and obeyed him. During the trip, Simran bumps into Raj, who is on the same Eurorail package tour with some friends. After some initial misadventures, mainly due to disrespectful and raucous behaviour on the part of Raj, he falls in love with Simran. Only at their moment of parting at the railway station in London does Simran realize that she too has fallen in love with Raj. Simran goes home and tells her mother that she has fallen in love with someone else and cannot go through with her wedding to Kuljeet. Baldev overhears their conversation, and is furious that Simran broke her promise that she would never betray his trust. He is adamant that she will marry Kuljeet as planned, and that her heartbreak is of her own doing, and they will leave for India as soon as possible.
Even though Simran does not want to marry Kuljeet, her family returns to Punjab. As it turns out, Kuljeet is an arrogant alpha male who takes pride in being a shikari (hunter) and boasts to his macho friends that he will engage in marital infidelity. Lajo tries to spare her daughter's feelings, but cannot stand up to her domineering husband. Both Simran and Chutki are completely unimpressed with Kuljeet and his brash friends. Raj, however, does not give up so easily. He follows Simran to Punjab at the urging of his bold father, meets her privately, and assures her that he will save her from the arranged marriage, and marry her with the consent of her father. As such, he refuses to elope with Simran because he wants her family to endorse their marriage, even though Simran's mother tries to force her savings into his hand so that he can elope and look after Simran. Raj reassures Simran's emotional mother that he intends to "win" rather than "steal" Simran. Meanwhile, Simran's paternal grandmother is very frail and close to death, and wants Baldev to stage the wedding as soon as possible so that she can die in peace.
Raj befriends Kuljeet and pretends to be a friend of the family. He helps with the wedding preparations and soon gains everyone's friendship and love. At the same time, Kuljeet's sister, Preeti (Mandira Bedi), falls in love with Raj, and things become complicated when Raj's father suddenly appears in India becomes mutually attracted to Simran's unmarried aunt. The parents become confused by Raj's apparent interest in Preeti, which he had feigned in order to please the family, and they begin to plan a double wedding. By now, even Simran's father Baldev has been won over by Raj. He knows that Raj is the boy from the beer incident, but he has forgiven Raj for that incident, thinking that it was an aberration. Raj further ingratiates himself by following Baldev into the mustard fields to feed the pigeons; Baldev has done this every day of his life, even in London. Raj imitates Baldev's habit of grunting to call over the birds, and then heals a wounded pigeon that has been shot down by Kuljeet. The bird-loving Baldev is very impressed by Raj's empathy with the birds, and appears disenchanted with Kuljeet's action. During this time, Simran pulls several stunts; she tapes her hand claiming that it has been cut in order to avoid putting on the engagement ring, and then pretends to faint towards the end of a religious fast so that she will not have to accept the fast-breaking food from Kuljeet. However, everything comes crashing down when Baldev sees a photograph of Raj and Simran together when they were on their trip across Europe, after it is blown out of Simran's room into the courtyard by a gust of wind. He exposes Raj's true identity in front of everybody, slaps him repeatedly, and angrily tells him to leave immediately, as Simran will marry Kuljeet regardless of what anybody thinks. As Raj leaves and is sitting at the railway station ready to leave Punjab, Kuljeet and his friends follow him and nearly beat him senseless with sticks for his deception; they also have a shotgun with them, presumably to kill him. However, when Raj's father tries to break up the fight, and Kuljeet and his friends beat him as well, Raj is rejuvenated and flies into a rage and single-handedly beats Kuljeet and his friends with a stick he has wrestled from Kuljeet's group; he also seizes the gun and holds it to Kuljeet's head, but throws it away and continues brawling. Baldev and Ajit arrive and then stop Raj and tell him and his father to go on their way. Raj and his father accordingly board a train out of the village. However, as the train begins to pull out of the station, all the females in the family arrive. Simran tries to follow, and is stopped by Baldev. She begs him to let her go, and he eventually comes to his senses and realizes that no one loves his daughter as much as Raj does. He tells Simran to join Raj on the train, and she enthusiastically does so.
Part 2
