The film begins with Guru telling how his father said never to dream, because dreams don't come true. We then are taken to Guru's youth where he wishes to go to Turkey because he has failed his mathematics exams. This shames his father who is the school's headmaster, still his father allows him to go. There, he stands out as an employee at Shell where he is promoted to sales supervisor, a position he refuses in order to start his own business.
He returns home where he gains Sujata's hand in marriage, along with it a dowry that will afford him the opportunity to become a businessman in cloth trading. Guru goes on to take on the trading union and builds his own factory, the Shakti Corporation where he creates his own cloth. His corporation grows to be one of the largest in the country, but he has adopted corrupted ways to gain the success he seeks.
Manik Dasgupta, who has become a father figure to Guru, runs the newspaper, Swatantra. Once he learns of Guru's manipulation of his newspaper he enlists Shyam Saxena, one of his reporters to take Guru down. Shyam discovers that Shakti has smuggled factory parts into the country without paying tax on it, and his plant is producing double the legal daily output. All of this is exposed by the newspaper. Guru goes on to have a stroke from the stress of his fight with the newspaper and Meenu, Manik's daughter who has married Shyam dies of her fight with multiple sclerosis.
Guru is brought before a government panel in order to defend himself against the corruption charges set out against him. Once Guru speaks to the press the next day his speech causes the government to clear him of nearly all of the charges set out against him. He must only settle two charges against him by paying the fines. Once he does, he is allowed to return to run his company.
