The film opens in Kanpur, where 14-year-old students tease a balding teacher. Balmukund “Bala” Shukla, a popular kid, leads the teasing. Bala borrows notes from the studious and dark-complexioned Latika and passes them off as his own to the fair-skinned Shruti to impress her. When Latika calls him out, Bala berates her for being dark-skinned. The narrator describes how society values beauty and fair skin over other accomplishments, especially in marriage.
14 Years later, Bala is a balding man in his late twenties who struggles with his premature baldness. He is a fairness cream salesman by day and nightclub comic by night. One day, Bala angrily lashes out at his bald father: his father’s balding genes have killed the son’s prospects. His father presents him with a wig and explains that baldness is external and need not have anything to do with one’s accomplishments. Bala dons the wig and resumes his work with new vigor. He meets a pretty, fair-skinned model, Pari, and courts her. They decide to marry. Some days before the wedding, Bala is stricken by conscience and sends her a text disclosing his baldness. Unbeknownst to him, the text accidentally goes to someone else and Pari does not see it. Bala assumes she has accepted his baldness and they marry.
