Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham synopsis:
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham "It's All About Loving Your Parents."

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is a lavish movie that deals with the issues of class distinction and the roles of women and men in marriage. It opens with a grown Rohan (Hrithik Roshan) finishing his boarding school education and returning to visit his grandmothers before he goes home for Diwali. His grandmothers, haunted by the memory of Rohan's estranged brother, Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan), sit Rohan down, and in their grief, tell him the story of his family.

Yashvardhan Raichand (Amitabh Bachchan) is a famous, wealthy Indian businessman. He and his wife Nandini (Jaya Badhuri) adopted a baby, Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan), and raised him as their own. Nine years later they had a natural son, Rohan (Hrithik Roshan), and considered their family complete.

Rahul was raised as the beloved eldest son, and promised his father he would always uphold the respect and traditions of the Raichand family, and always do his parents proud. However, love intervenes...

On his way to deliver medication for Daijaan, the nanny who raised both him and his brother, Rahul sees a beautiful girl, Anjali Sharma (Kajol) celebrating India's cricket win in the street. Enchanted by her exuberance, he watches her dance and then follows her into her family's sweet shop. There, she mistakes him for the prospective groom of her best friend. Thinking him to be Ashfaque the poet, who is set to marry her friend, Anjali recites her original work, much to Rahul's confusion. She then drags him over to look at the day's paper, where there is a picture of "the big snob" (as she terms him) Yash Raichand and his son. Anjali realizes her mistake too late, and is humiliated. Rahul, however, is highly amused and too taken with the outspoken girl to take any offense. Their repartee is interrupted when Rohan, who has come with Rahul to deliver the medicine, comes running by, chased by local kids, including Anjali's sister Pooja. They refuse to allow him entrance to their town without reciting an extremely complicated tongue-twister, which Rahul is unable to do, so they chase him. In rebuttal, when Pooja shows up at Rohan's school to harass him further, the girls and boys of Rohan's school make fun of Pooja's middle-class appearance, and bring her to tears.

Rahul goes out to a party with the neighbor girl Naina (Rani Mukherji), but returns home early, having been bored with the high society life. Naina is the daughter of Yash's best friend, another wealthy businessman, and therefore eminently suited to be Rahul's wife. And since Yash is looking for a bride for Rahul, Naina is his prime candidate. The family is having a quiet evening at home when Rahul returns. Nandini mentions Anjali's friend's wedding. Since the bride is Daijaan's daughter, and Daijaan is a long-time employee of the family, Nandini feels she and Yash should attend. Yash, however, does not agree. He feels that Daijaan's family is not of a high enough class, and therefore he will not attend. Nandini attempts to protest, but Yash overrides her. The subject is closed. Yash goes back to his game with Rohan, who accidentally lets slip that they're planning a surprise birthday party for Yash.

Coincidentally, the sweets for the party are provided by Anjali's shop. She and her friend Rukhsar (the future bride), come to the party to serve the sweets, and Rahul is caught by the sight of the girl he remembers dancing in the streets. He and his father dance a big party number (Say Shava Shava), and Anjali gets caught up in the excitement. When Nandini reminds Yash to calm down a little, he starts to sing her an old filmi song to placate her. When he forgets the words, Anjali blurts them out. Rukhsar and Daijaan are appalled at Anjali's rudeness to both an elder and a social superior, and hasten her out of the party. On catching sight of Rahul, Anjali is so distracted she bumps into a vase and smashes it. In complete disgrace, she leaves the party.

The next day Daijaan brings Anjali by to apologize to Yash for breaking his "pot," as Anjali calls it, not knowing any better. Anjali makes her apology in her own unique way, interrupted not a few times by Rahul, who, on seeing his love again, creates mischief behind his father's back. Hilarity ensues, and on hearing she has been forgiven, Anjali turns to go, rather less decorously than is proper, and in the process, smashes another "pot." Daijaan rushes her away, and Rahul is left leaning against the doorframe, completely lovestruck.

On hearing of her sister's humiliation at Rohan's school, Anjali is outraged, and lectures both her sister and her father on the social ineptitude of rich people, saying, "too much money, too little heart." She vows to seek revenge, and as she backs up to go out the door, she bumps directly into Rahul, who has brought Rohan to apologize. Rahul also asks for Anjali's friendship, and the next day calls up her shop. Anjali answers, saying the shop has sweets for all occasions, including engagements and weddings, to which Rahul says, "both will happen in due time." Anjali blushes red, and Rahul proceeds to invite her to the fair being held in her town. She agrees.

Rohan and Pooja go running off at the fair, leaving Anjali and Rahul to their own devices. Rahul tells Anjali that she looks very beautiful with her hair loose. Anjali, clearly unused to such compliments, hurries to distract herself at a stall selling bangles. She picks up green ones, a color traditionally chosen for brides, and Rahul, singing a love song, buys them for her. She retreats, believing he is seducing her with the aim of taking over her sweet shop, but Rahul forestalls her, sliding the bangles slowly onto her wrists, explaining that her shop is not what he is after. They declare their love for each other (Suraj Hua Maddham).

Following Yash's refusal to go to Daijaan's daugher's wedding, he sends Rahul in his place. While Rahul is at the wedding, Yash finalizes the engagment arrangements with his best friend, betrothing Rahul to Naina. Rahul, however, at the wedding, dances the night away with Anjali. He returns to find out he is engaged, and in his shock refuses the engagement. Yash is outraged and Naina is deeply hurt, but she at least acknowledges that Rahul is irrevocably in love, and lets him out of his obligation to her. Yash is not so forgiving, and demands that Rahul break things off with Anjali at once. Rahul goes to Anjali's village, and walks straight into a funeral procession, which turns out to be for Anjali's father. At the sight of her grief, he abandons all caution and claims Anjali for his wife at last. He marries her still in her mourning clothing, and takes her and her sister Pooja to London, where they settle into their new life.

Rohan, meanwhile, having heard this story, becomes determined to reunite his family. He asks his father for permission to go to London for university, citing the very important point that it is a family tradition. Yash, a firm traditionalist, agrees.

In London, Rahul and Anjali have set up house, taking along Daijaan as a sort of mother-substitute. They have had a son, and Pooja lives with them. She too is starting university, and has become a first-class beauty queen, extremely popular and desired. She dresses extremely provocatively, scandalizing Rahul and making Anjali roll her eyes. She calls herself Poo, and reigns supreme at her school. The only man who won't turn and give her a second look is a mysterious stranger in a Lamborghini. Intrigued by his indifference, Pooja pursues him until he reveals himself by reciting perfectly the tongue-twister she tormented him with all those years ago (Deewana Hai Dekho). It is Rohan, all grown up, and extremely attractive. Pooja immediately drops her beauty-queen facade and explains her family's situation to Rohan. They become allies; their aim is to reunite their families. They concoct a plan to have Rohan come and stay at the house, under the guise that he is a cousin of her friend's. Rahul is disinclined to have him in the house, to say the least, but Anjali agrees without hesitation when Pooja tells her the new boy is straight from India. Missing her homeland, Anjali accepts Rohan right away. Rahul takes much longer to warm up to the new boy, but cannot shake the feeling that there is something inherently familiar about him. Rohan introduces himself by his father's name, and Rahul, feeling strangely unsettled, decides he should stay in the house. Daijaan too cannot shake the feeling that she knows this Yash.

Much to everyone's surprise, Rohan's presence in the house beings to turn Pooja into a dutiful Indian maiden, and Rahul slowly warms to him.

At school, Pooja gets up to her old mischief at prom time, and the only person she'll go with is Rohan, who is completely unimpressed with her. She flits by him one Saturday night all dolled up for the club, and Rohan doesn't bat an eye, but rather points out that her shoes are unmatched. She leaves in a flounce, but Rohan follows her to the club. She abandons her date, and turns to find Rohan standing on the balcony of the club, declaring his love for her (You Are My Soniya).

Back in India, Nandini is still mourning the loss of Rahul. Yash recognizes her sorrow but only asks that she "bring back his Nandini," nothing of why she's sad or upset. He only wants things to return to some kind of normalcy.

Karwa Chauth approaches, and Rohan's plan progresses. He asks Anjali if she has ever recieved the traditional sweets from her mother-in-law for the holiday, and knowing full well the answer is no, calls up his mother to have her speak to Anjali. Anjali, who is deeply hurt by the fact that she has never recieved these sweets, is touched by Rohan's gesture and by his mother's. Thus the real mother-in-law sends sweets to her real daughter-in-law, and they come one step closer.

At the night time party for the breaking of the wives' fast, Pooja reveals that she fasted for Rohan, who is bemused at her devotion, but pleased. He mocks her a little, gently, asking who he is to her. In her pique, she dares him to be a man and reveal to Rahul and Anjali who he really is. He asks what his reward will be if he does, and Pooja answers cryptically. In a roundabout way, without a chorus of "Wah, Wah, Ramji," Rohan sings to his "bhaiyya aur bhabi" and satifies his part of the bet. Pooja then fulfills her end of the bargain by telling him how she feels (Bole Chudiyan). In the course of the song Rohan imagines Yash and Nandini entering the party and accepting Anjali into the fold. It is all imagination, alas, and the song ends with Rahul and Rohan embracing. Rohan has been accepted.

To further his plan, Rahul calls up his parents in India and begs them to visit him in London. Yash obliges readily, and Rohan tells him the only way he'll be welcome is if he brings a present. Yash is at a loss as to what to get his son, so Rohan tells him to meet him at the Blue Water Mall in London, where he contrives to bring Anjali and Rahul as well. Yash, unfamiliar with the technology of the day, attempts to find an "iPac" or something of the sort, for Rohan. He wanders off in pursuit of the elusive gizmo, and Rahul walks straight into his mother.

Tearfully, silently, Nandini cradles her son, with Anjali and their child looking on. Yash approaches, sees Rahul, and flees. Later that evening he is outraged, striking Rohan for being so presumptuous. It is obvious he has not forgiven Rahul. Rohan, in turn, accuses his father of having a bigger ego than is good for him. Similarly devastated at the day's events, Anjali begs Rahul to go to his parents, go to India, ask forgiveness. Cradling his wife's face, Rahul says simply that she can never understand the pain of going from outcast to family to outcast again, and leaves it at that.

Rohan finally reveals who he is and brings his father and brother face-to-face again, where Yash berates his son with tears in his eyes. He says Rahul had no right to leave the family and not look back once, not return even once. Rahul, crying, says he thought his father didn't love him. Yash tells him that fathers never stop loving their sons, no matter what, and Rahul and Anjali are accepted into the family. Rohan and Pooja marry, and all ends well.

Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham plot:
Introduction stage:Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) is the adopted son of Yashvardhan "Yash" Raichand (Amitabh Bachchan) and his wife Nandini (Jaya Bachchan). Their biological son, Rohan, is younger than Rahul by nine years. Yash is a rich and famous business man in India. He believes in keeping traditions, and is against love marriages. When Rahul returns home from his overseas university, however, he meets and falls in love with a poor girl from the Chandni Chowk region of Delhi named Anjali (Kajol). Meanwhile, Rohan befriends Pooja, Anjali's younger sister.
Rising stage:Yash decides to arrange Rahul's marriage to his friend's daughter, Naina (Rani Mukerji). Rahul, however, tells his father that he wants to marry Anjali; this angers Yash, who berates Rahul for not considering Anjali's social status. Rahul apologizes to Yash and promises to do whatever is asked of him. He goes to tell Anjali that he cannot marry her, only to find that her father has died suddenly. After seeing that Anjali and Pooja have no other family, he marries Anjali on the spot. When he brings her home, his enraged father disowns him, and says that, because he is adopted and not of Raichand blood originally, he did such an act. Rahul, shocked and hurt, shares an emotional goodbye with his mother; Nandini asks Rahul's and Rohan's nanny, Daijaan (Farida Jalal), to accompany Rahul wherever he goes so that he will always have a mother's love and care. After visiting Rohan at boarding school for the last time, he leaves with Anjali, Pooja, and Daijaan.
Rohan (played by Hrithik Roshan as an adult) is devastated by the split in the family, but has never learned why Rahul left because Rahul had made him promise never to ask. Ten years later, on his way home for the holidays, he stops to meet his maternal and paternal grandmothers and overhears them discussing the split; upon confrontation, they tell him the whole truth. When he goes to his parents' home, he learns from a few friends of Anjali's that Rahul and Anjali have settled down in London. Vowing to bring Rahul and Anjali home, Rohan tells his parents that he wants to go to London to study; Yash reluctantly agrees. As soon as he arrives in London, he tracks Rahul down and learns his address. He enrolls at the university and finds that Pooja (Kareena Kapoor) happens to be a student there. He tells her who he is and asks her to help him bring the family back together.
Climax: Meanwhile, Rahul has started his own business and is living comfortably with Anjali and their nine-year-old son, Krish, along with Pooja and Sayeeda a.k.a Daijaan. Pooja tells everyone that Rohan is her best friend's brother who has come from India and needs a place to stay. Rahul and Anjali welcome him (grudgingly, on Rahul's part), and Rohan soon becomes a part of the family without revealing who he is. He reminds Rahul and Anjali of how much they miss India and their parents, drawing pangs of guilt in Rahul. Slowly, the truth comes out and he tries to convince Rahul to go back to India. He even goes so far as to convince Yash and Nandini to come to London with the hope that Yash will reunite with Rahul. His plan fails, but Rahul and Nandini share a joyful reunion. At this point Anjali, too, attempts to persuade Rahul to go back to India and reconcile with his father. Rahul, convinced that his father does not love him and wants nothing to do with him, remains adamant until they learn that Yash's mother has died, and that her last wish was for Rahul, Yash, and Rohan to light her funeral pyre together. Rahul goes back to India, but participates in the funeral without speaking to his father.
Falling stage: Nandini confronts Yash and tells him, for the first time in ten years, that he was wrong in cutting ties with Rahul, whom he had brought into their home with such love and happiness. This leaves Yash stunned, and at odds with himself. Rohan finally manages to convince Rahul to visit home for Nandini's sake. They go with Anjali and Pooja, and find Yash humbled and sad. Yash apologizes to Rahul and berates him for believing that his father did not love him and for not returning home sooner.
Ending: Things end happily, with Rohan and Pooja's wedding and a belated celebration of Rahul and Anjali's wedding.