Hera Pheri (2000 Film) - Plot

Plot

Raju (Akshay Kumar) is a tenant of Baburao Ganpatrao Apte aka Babu Bhaiyya (Paresh Rawal) and has not paid his rent for a long time. Raju does not believe in hard work and wants to earn easy money. He cons everybody, even his mother (Sulabha Arya), who thinks that her son works in Calcutta. Baburao, a bespectacled near-sighted man, runs the "Star Garage". He has a familial debt with many money-lenders and has hard time with them.

Shyam aka Ghanshyam (Sunil Shetty) has come to Mumbai from Gurgaon seeking a job in his late father's bank. Apparently his father died in a fire that broke out in the bank and he claims that the bank owes him the job. He badly needs the money for his friend Khadak Singh's (Om Puri) sister's marriage. A young woman, Anuradha Panniker (Tabu), is also in the running for the job, her father having died two minutes before Shyam's. Shyam meets Raju and a misunderstanding causes Shyam to think that Raju is a pickpocket. A fight ensues between the two, and Raju escapes, leaving his wallet with Shyam. After Raju leaves, Shyam discovers that he had his own wallet on him all the time. Unfortunately, this realization comes just as Raju returns with two policemen, insisting that Shyam robbed him.

Later that evening, Shyam reaches Star Garage. Baburao agrees to take him in as a paying boarder, although he warns Shyam that he will have to share the place with another boarder. Unfortunately for Shyam, the other boarder is Raju, who has not paid Baburao a single penny of rent in the last two years. The two men come to blows again the minute they see each other, and Raju vociferously objects to Shyam's presence and threatens to move out. Baburao is nonplussed by Raju's indignation and calls his bluff. Eventually, Raju backs down, claiming that he's only staying because he owes Baburao and he hates to leave debts. The two men are constantly at each other's throats, and poor Baburao often ends up suffering the physical consequences of their conflict.

Raju manages to trick Shyam into signing a document that says he will give the bank position to Anuradha. When Shyam discovers the fraud, he threatens to sue both the bank and Anuradha. Panicked, the bank manager tries to get Anuradha to seduce Shyam, but he's having none of it. Eventually, she makes a deal to give him the position in exchange for money. Shyam is unable to get the money, and when he goes to bluff his way through the deal, he discovers that Anuradha is living with her mentally ill mother in abject poverty. She admits that she discovered that Shyam's own financial situation is as bad as her own, and that she didn't have the heart to go through with her plan, so she gives him her resignation letter. Shyam refuses, insisting that he could never live with himself, and that she should keep the position. The two of them become friends and even begin a romance.

Meanwhile, Khadak Singh shows up at the bank looking for Shyam, whom he believes has stiffed him. The bank manager gives him Baburao's address. Raju is only too glad to put in a "good word" for Shyam with Khadak Singh, and it is only thanks to Baburao's intervention that an ugly scene does not ensue. Shyam, however gets even with Raju by shaking him down for gas money in front of his mother, lest she find out that he doesn't really work at the place he's showing her, or that he doesn't work at all.

Baburao is constantly getting people calling and wanting to speak to a Mr. Deviprasad (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), which annoys him to no end. One day, however, things become serious when a kidnapper named Kabeera (Gulshan Grover) asks for Deviprasad—only this time, he's asking for a ransom to be paid on Deviprasad's granddaughter (Ann Alexia Anra) of Avvai Shanmughi/Kamalahaasan Fame. The trio figures out that the phone numbers for Star Garage and Star Fisheries, of which Deviprasad is the owner, have gotten transposed in the phone book.

Now, Raju decides to benefit from this situation and makes Shyam call Deviprasad posing as Kabira and demand double the amount asked by Kabeera so that they can pocket the other half themselves while satisfying the ransom demand. However, when one employee realises that Deviprasad's granddaughter might have been kidnapped, he involves the police. Both Raju and Kabeera's plans are thwarted, and as punishment for involving the police, Kabeera doubles the ransom.

Following their brush with Kabeera and the police, Shyam and Baburao inform Raju that they're out of it, but Raju eventually shames them back into helping him. They tell Deviprasad to meet them at the rendezvous point an hour before Kabeera's appointed time. When they meet with Deviprasad, he demands to see his granddaughter. Eventually, the trio are forced to admit that they are not actually the kidnappers, just three guys in over their heads, but they will get Deviprasad's granddaughter back for him. To further prove their sincerity, they unmask themselves, give Deviprasad their names and tell him that if he doesn't trust them, he can turn them in. Deviprasad chooses to believe them.

In a hilarious melee that follows between Khadak Singh and his men, Kabeera and his cronies, police and the trio, our heroes save the girl and return her to her grateful grandfather. Raju collects all the money, while Shyam and Baburao head towards their home.

When they find that Raju is not at home, they think that he may have fled with the money. Enraged, they call the police and concoct a story to implicate all 3 of them in the kidnapping. No sooner than they hang up with the police, a jubilant Raju enters, carrying a suitcase. He explains to the dumbfounded duo that the car broke down, but he fixed it as well as repaid Shyam's debt, but he's here now. He is confused by his friends' glum expressions, and asks what's wrong. They explain that they thought he stiffed them, so they turned themselves in and implicated him too. Raju breaks down and tells them that in this world, all he really cares for is his mother, who will now see her son being arrested and sent to jail.

As expected, the police arrive to take the trio away to jail. Raju requests that they not be led out through the front door, lest his mother see them. At the last minute, just as the police are about to shut the door on the van, Deviprasad appears, telling the police that there's been a terrible misunderstanding. He tells them that they misunderstood that he was actually giving them the money, and that he's not pressing charges against them. Not having any reason to hold them anymore, the police release the trio. They thank Deviprasad for intervening on their behalf, but Deviprasad insists that he should be thanking them, and that he meant what he said about the money being theirs. Anything the trio could possibly want in the future, Deviprasad insists, is theirs for the asking. Suddenly, the phone rings again and the trio realise that it may be for Deviprasad. But Deviprasad tells them that this time the phone is for them. They pick up the phone and suddenly become tense. Then it is shown that the caller is Deviprasad's granddaughter saying "Kabira Speaking". The film ends with the trio breaking into uncontrollable laughter.