Preeti Vyas (Aishwarya Rai) is a young woman who bravely comes forward as a witness to a heinous assault carried by Bhavani Choudhry (Mukesh Rishi) and his men on a poor crippledperson who owes them money. The injured man is helped to the hospital by Preeti and a courteous and brave man called Avinash (Anil Kapoor), who holds strong morals and values.

Preeti's testimony angers the Choudhry family and, as a result, Choudhry's younger brother, Babloo Choudhry (Puru Raajkumar), rapes her. Subsequently, she becomes pregnant and a disgrace to her own family so she is disowned and ostracised by society, so she leaves her house with nowhere to go.

She finds shelter with Avinash, who welcomes her to his home. The two live well together as friends but this union invites a social opprobrium and strong uproar, and there is no other solution but marriage. They soon fall in love, and Avinash decides to ask Preeti for her hand in marriage. She refuses as she considers herself unworthy of him due to being raped, and Avinash respects her decision. Both of them attend a wedding where Preeti sees that her friend is marrying Babloo, the man who had raped her so Avinash beats him up and the police arrest Babloo and take him away.

After a year, Avinash's childhood friend Khushi (Sonali Bendre) returns from America, she tries to win his heart, as she is in love with him. This arouses jealousy in Preeti, and she realizes the depth of her love for Avinash. After encountering several obstacles, Avinash and Preeti finally declare their love for each other and get married.

• Anil Kapoor as Avinash
• Aishwarya Rai as Preeti Vyas
• Sonali Bendre as Khushi
• Puru Raajkumar as Babloo Chaudhry (Bhavani's brother)
• Mukesh Rishi as Bhavani Chaudhry
• Anang Desai
• Anupam Kher as Tamil husband (Muthu Pillai)
• Johnny Lever as Chatterjee
• Jaspal Bhatti as Balwinder (Balu)
• Himani Shivpuri as Sita Pillai
• Isha Talwar
• Tanaaz Irani as Preeti's friend

Won

• Star Screen Award Best Supporting Actress - Sonali Bendre

Nominated

• Star Screen Award Best Actress - Aishwarya Rai
• Filmfare Best Actress Award - Aishwarya Rai

The soundtrack of the film contains eight songs. The music is conducted by the duo Sanjeev-Darshan and the songs are written by Javed Akhtar.