Rohit Kumar (Aamir Khan) is an aspiring playback singer while Kiran (Manisha Koirala) is an ambitious classical singer-in-training. They meet, relate to each other's sentiments, fall in love and get married prematurely. When Kiran's parents oppose their marriage, they decide to lead a separate life.

However, after marriage, Kiran's ambitions take a back seat as she feels suppressed by her household responsibilities and looking after her son. Time fails to abate Kiran's frustration until she decides to leave Rohit and start a new life all over again. Now a loner, Rohit is forced to look after both his son and his own falling career. After some obvious teething troubles, Rohit succeeds in creating a separate world for himself and his son, Sunil.

Meanwhile, Kiran becomes a huge film star. She tries to reconcile with Rohit but as luck would have it, Rohit is a proud man and misinterprets her support as her pity and things become worse. A court case is eventually filed for the custody of Sunil.

Rohit faces a tough time preparing for the case as his financial position is not as sound as Kiran's. He sells his best songs at a very low price so that he can fight the custody battle. During the court battle, Kiran's lawyer Bhujbal (Paresh Rawal) uses every possible trick to show that Rohit does not deserve the custody of his child. He even uses the information that Rohit had told Kiran (only because he felt that she had a right to know about her son's life) against him. Rohit instructs his lawyer to fight the case honestly as he does not wish to hurt Kiran and her reputation. In the end the court rules in favor of the mother and Kiran is given custody of the child. During this time, common friends of Rohit and Kiran try to explain to Kiran that Rohit had changed for the better and that he was now very much attached to his son. Kiran also realises that their son would never find happiness only with her. She tells Rohit that she will not take Sonu away and that she wants him to stay at his own home to which Rohit replies that this was Kiran's home as well. Kiran seemingly moves to get out of the house but then closes the door and smiles.

Rohit and Kiran hug each other and their son and the movie ends.

• Aamir Khan as Rohit Kumar
• Manisha Koirala as Kiran Kumar
• Adil Rizvi as Sunil "Sonu" Kumar
• Deven Verma as Kanhaiya
• Tanvi Azmi as Farida
• Rohini Hattangadi as Mrs. Dayal (as Rohini Hatangadi)
• Paresh Rawal as Advocate Bhujbal
• Anjan Srivastava as Ram Dayal (as Anjan Srivastava)
• Rakesh Roshan as Paresh Kapoor
• Shafi Inamdaar as Kaushik
• Satish Shah as Gulbadan Kumar
• Harish Patel as Amar
• Navneet Nishan as Sunita (Kiran's Friend)
• Neeraj Vora as Moolchand (Grocer)
• Mushtaq Khan as Mr. Bhatija (Rohit's Lawyer)
• Dinesh Hingoo as Jamshed (Grocer)
• Anant Mahadevan
• Shashi Kiran as Ravinder Kapoor
• Suresh Bhagwat as Prakash (Tailor)
• Razzak Khan as Babulal
• Hiralal as Hira Lal
• Viju Khote (actor playing role of a NRI)
• Ayesha Jhulka (presenting award)
• Yunus Parvez as Mehra (uncredited)
• Ghanshyam (actor playing role to insult a NRI)
• Jennifer Winget as young girl

The music is given by Anu Malik. For this, he received a nomination for Filmfare Best Music Director Award. Tracks like "Raja Ko Rani Se Pyaar", "Dil Mera Churaya Kyun", "Akele Hum Akele Tum" and "Dil Kehta Hai" became immensely popular.