Shiva (Akshay Kumar) is a small-time thief in Mumbai who falls in love with Paro (Sonakshi Sinha) from Patna, who is in Mumbai to attend a marriage. Shiva makes his way into Paro's heart by going to the marriage. Slowly, she starts loving him. Shiva tells her the truth about him being a thief and resolves to give up crime forever because he loves Paro dearly. But before that, he decides to swindle one last person for a large sum of money along with his con-friend 2G (Paresh Ganatra). He tricks a woman on a railway station (Gurdeep Kohli) and flees with a trunk. This leads Shiva to Chinki (Ananya Nayak), a girl who was in the trunk instead of the wealth he thought was there, who thinks that he is her father. Flummoxed by what is happening, but forced to keep Chinki with him as a police officer (Yashpal Sharma) keeps his eye on him.
While keeping Chinki with him, Shiva fears that he will get caught by Paro and lose her forever. He searches through the trunk, where he first saw Chinki, to see who is Chinki's real father. Shiva then spots a photo of Chinki and her father. Her father looks exactly like Shiva, realising why Chinki had called him her father. Surprised to see the photo, Shiva and 2G decide to go find Chinki's father.
Here it is revealed that Chinki's father is Vikram Rathore (Akshay Kumar), who is a danger to criminals. While chasing a goon to find his daughter, Rathore gets hit by an auto and falls down a hill. Then his brain gets aggravated and he gets severe pain. While being there for some time to hide from the goons who are after him, Rathore slowly makes his way to a faucet, turns it on, and runs water all over his head, making him come back to normal. At the hospital, his doctor tells him that the injury in his brain is very serious, and can put his life in danger.
After having Chinki with him for some days, Shiva gets fed up with her and breaks her tape recorder. The next morning, he hears Chinki cry. After Shiva learns that Chinki's mother died, he gets deeply hurt for what he has done to Chinki and he starts to love and take care of her. Unfortunately, Paro sees this and misunderstands Shiva. She angrily leaves for Patna. Depressed, Shiva and Chinki walk sadly in Mumbai. Soon, the goons who are after Rathore, see Shiva. Thinking that he is Rathore, they start chasing him. While he and Chinki are running for their life, they encounter the lady at the train station as well as the police officer from earlier, who tell Shiva to run. While running, Chinki becomes unconscious. Shiva then reaches a construction site and is soon surrounded by the goons. Their leader pushes him down and says these things which Shiva has no idea about. It is revealed that Rathore is watching the whole thing from the top. Just as Shiva is about to get stabbed by a goon, Rathore quickly takes a weapon, jumps down and kills the goon.
The goons see this and are surprised to see two identical men. Even Shiva can't believe this. Rathore puts Shiva and Chinki in a cell for safety and locks them up. Then a fight starts in which Rathore beats up some goons. But while fighting, Rathore injures his brain, giving the goons the chance to attack him. Eventually, Rathore gets stabbed by the leader. But then rain starts to fall, bringing Rathore to his senses. He gets back up, even though he is severely injured, and kills every goon himself. After this, the railway station lady and the police inspector salute him. Rathore then collapses on the ground and faints. At the hospital, Shiva and Chinki appear to be okay, and Shiva realises that those two people he encountered before are real police officers. Shiva asks the doctor about Rathore. The doctor replies that the injuries are more than worse, but they're trying their best. The police officers then tell Shiva that the man who looks like Shiva is ACP Vikram Rathore, a disciplined and respected police officer. The police officers then narrate Shiva of this whole incident.
Six months ago in a village near Patna called Devgarh lived a goon who was called Baabji (Nassar). His son Munna (Amit Kumar Tiwari) used to trouble, torture and annxe money from people. When Rathore arrived to Devgarh, he found out about Baabji and his criminal activities and he immediately arrested his son. But Munna was released because Baabji was friends with the minister. Baapji then decides to have a party for Munna's release. At the party, Munna decides to play a 'Tag' game, whereby policemen who were caught by Munna while escaping from him will have to remove their clothes. Munna takes the tagged policeman's belt and puts it around his neck. Rathore, being the next target, comes up with a plan. He moves back to the balcony and drops his bullets. Munna slips and falls out of the balcony and is then killed through suicide. The next day, Rathore got attacked by Baapji's brother Titla (Supreeth Reddy) on Dusshehra where he is stabbed from the back as well as shot in the head while trying to save a village child. He was then assumed to be dead. While the police officers were getting ready to bury him, he started breathing. Apparently, he survived the attack. Everybody at the funeral promised not to disclose this to anybody. Then the officers quickly took Rathore to Mumbai for treatment. But a lot of doctors said that it was impossible to cure this injury.
After Shiva hears the whole story, the doctors come to them and say that Rathore doesn't have much time left. Rathore requests Shiva to take care of his daughter. Shiva promises and says that Chinki is now his daughter. Rathore smiles and dies while holding Shiva's hand. Feeling depressed by what happened, Shiva promises to finish Rathore's unfinished work. He officially takes up the identity of ACP Vikram Rathore. Rathore goes to Devgarh with Chinki to take revenge on Baabji. Rathore sets Baabji's factory on fire and Baabji gets beaten up by the other police officers. Meanwhile Paro finds out the truth about Shiva, Chinki, the death of her real father,and that Shiva is now & will always be Rathore. She apologises and tells Rathore that she will also take care of Chinki. Titla, who realises that Rathore is alive, kidnaps Paro and Chinki. Rathore appears and a fight starts. At the end of the fight, Rathore ties Titla and Baabji to a rope on a bridge and cuts the rope. Baabji and Titla fall hard on the ground and die. The people of Devgarh are now safe and they start a celebration. After getting promotion, Rathore marries Paro and starts his new life as a police officer with Paro, Chinki, and 2G.