Dil Se.. - Plot

Plot

Amarkant "Amar" Varma (Shahrukh Khan), an All-India Radio program executive living in Delhi, India, is dispatched to the troubled North-Eastern region of India to report from there on the situation pertaining to the approaching 50th Anniversary of Indian independence. There, he interviews a terrorist leader on his group's motivation and ethics. He then comes across Meghna (Manisha Koirala) at a railway station and chats up with her. He excuses himself for a while, offering to get her a cup of tea, only to find her gone already on a train with three mysterious men. A few weeks after that meeting, he spots her again in a street and confronts her, but she resists and pretends not to recognise him. Amar then resorts to stalking and seeks her out near her place of dwelling and tells her he loves her "dil se" (English equivalent: from the heart). To discourage him, Meghna tells him that she is married, and leaves. Amar feels embarrassed for flirting with a married woman, and sincerely wishes to apologize to her. He arranges a meeting with her to do so, but she brings two mysterious men with her, who subsequently take Amar away and beat him. This harsh experience invigorates Amar to find Meghna again. After finding out her plans to visit Ladakh, he follows her with the convenient excuse of reporting on the local festivities and she gives him the slip there too.

As Amar heads home, he finds her on the same bus. He starts flirting with her and mocking her for having her supposed husbands beat him up. Then a security guard intercepts them and asks Amar his purpose for visiting Ladakh, and Amar tells him he was reporting on the festivities there. When it is Meghna's turn to answer, she tells him that she and Amar are together. The bus breaks down and the passengers are forced to walk a two-day journey to their destination. Amar nearly loses Meghna again but manages to get hold of her and confronts her, angered about the fact she had used him, before proceeding to accuse her of being a morally loose tease. She tells him her name and that the two men who beat him up were her brothers. Amar tries to aggressively force himself up on Meghna, which causes her a painful anxiety attack.

During the pair's two day walk they have a whirlwind adventure through the desert. Though the two fall for each other, Meghna leaves Amar to return to the safety of Delhi alone. Upon his return, he finds that his family wants him to meet Preeti Nair (Preity Zinta), a potential bride. Amar and Preeti both agree to get married. Then Meghna shows up at Amar's house, on the day he is to be engaged to Preeti, and asks for a place to stay. Amar and his family let her stay at their house, and Amar arranges for a job for her at the radio station.

It is later revealed that Meghna is a member of the terrorist/revolutionist group who are in to Delhi to assassinate the President at the Republic Day parade. Amar finds out about the plan and confronts her, Meghna's past is revealed in this confrontation as flash-backs of her parents being killed by Indian Army firing and her sister and her 12-year old self getting raped afterwards by members of Indian forces, these events drove her to become a part of the terrorist/revolutionary group, after this revelation she manages to escape again. Amar continues to pursue her, despite getting arrested by the police and getting beaten up repeatedly by her men. In the end, he finds Meghna and pleads her to not carry out the attack. She warns him to stay away from her, as she is afraid that he might activate the bomb in her vest. He then whispers in her ear, "If you won't come with me, take me with you." Meghna's intense inner struggle subsides; she embraces Amar and the bomb detonates, killing the two.