Plot

A man travelling to Rameswaram via Chennai express for his late grandfather's ashes immersion finds himself in trouble after helping a don's daughter and her cousins board the train.

Rahul, a middle-aged Mumbaikar man, embarks on a cross-country journey to Tamil Nadu to disperse his late grandfather's ashes in the Holy water of Rameshwaram. While travelling by train from Mumbai to Chennai, Rahul finds his life in grave danger when he encounters and falls for the cheerful daughter of a don mafia kingpin. After making a grave, costly mistake of helping four heavily armed to the teeth South Indian henchmen goons board the train, Rahul is left to fend for himself when the henchmen destroy his cell phone. As Rahul and Meena grow close whilst travelling across the spectacular South Indian lands of Chennai, an unanticipated and ominous looming danger awaits them.—UTV Motion Pictures

Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) is a forty-year old bachelor living in in Mumbai. Rahul's parents died in a car accident when he was eight years old and it was his grandparents who brought him up. His grandfather has a sweet-selling business - Y.Y. Mithaiwala - and he owns a chain of stores in Mumbai. Before his birth centenary celebration two of Rahul's friends suggest going to Goa for a vacation to which he accepts. Right before the birth centenary, his grandfather dies. His grandmother tells him that his grandfather desired to have his ashes divided into two parts and have one part of it immersed at Rameswaram. She politely requests Rahul to go to Rameswaram and immerse the ashes. Rahul reluctantly accepts her request. He was eager to attend the Goa trip, so, he and his friends plan to dump the ashes at Goa. But, they were forced to change their plan when Rahul's grandmother told him that she would be coming to see him off at the station. This forces Rahul to travel by train and he books a single ticket on the Chennai Express. He plans to reunite with his friends at the Kalyan Junction station from where they would travel to Goa by car. Right after commencing the journey from the Bandra railway station in Mumbai, when the train was leaving the platform, Rahul sees a girl running to catch the train. He helps her to board the moving train. Then he notices four men are also running to catch the train. Rahul helps them all to get in. He learns that those four men were the cousins abducting the girl whose name is Meenalochini Azhagu Sundaram (Deepika Padukone) aka Meenamma. She was trying to flee from a forced marriage to Thangaballi (Nikitin Dheer). Her father Durgeshwara Azhagu Sundaram (Sathyaraj), is a powerful headman of the Komban village in west Tamil Nadu. He wants her to marry Thangaballi so that he would assume control of the neighboring village as well. Meena takes Rahul to her father and introduces him as her lover. Thangaballi takes an instant dislike to Rahul and menacingly dares Rahul to fight him. Rahul unknowingly takes up the challenge due to the language barrier. On the night of the fight, Rahul tries to escape with the help of a local Sikh policeman but in the turn of events, ends up back in Komban village. Surrounded by sickle-wielding henchmen of Azhagu Sundaram, Rahul pretends to kill Meena and escapes in her father's favorite car. When the jeep breaks down, they part ways. But, Rahul not knowing which way to go, comes back to Meena who takes him to the Vidhaata village where a wedding was taking place. Meena lies to the people that they are a married couple who have eloped and needed protection. The villagers grow fond of the couple and take care of them as long as they stay while Meena realizes that she has fallen in love with Rahul. When Rahul plans to sneak out, Meena does not want to flee, as doing so earn the distrust of the affectionate villagers. As he is about to take his leave, he is caught read-handed by Thangaballi but the villagers hold them off, allowing them to flee again. Meena who persuades him to immerse his grandpa's ashes travels with Rahul to Rameswaram. There they complete the procedures and on their way back, Rahul realizes that he has also fallen for Meena, but does not to tell Meena where they are heading. He and Meena arrive back at the village to face the wrath of her father and Thangaballi. Rahul tries to talk some sense into Azhagu to make him understand and honor his daughter's wish. He also professes his love for Meena. Rahul confronts Thangaballi and confidently challenges him to fight, for real this time. In the ensuing climactic knock down, drag out fist fight, Rahul is gravely wounded and bleeding profusely. Despite his injuries, Rahul survives and manages to overpower Thangaballi, but refrains from killing him. Thangaballi accepts his defeat graciously and bows out, humbly praising Rahul for his fortitude. Azhagu Sundaram also turns over a new leaf, accepting that the big, strong heart of a common man is a much greater, powerful force than their physical ability and political clout. Meena's father finally allows Rahul to marry his daughter. As Rahul and Meena embrace, the film ends with a voiceover from Rahul narrating that love knows no barriers of region or language barriers and that with a strong heart, there is no limit to what a common man can achieve.—Nexami

Rahul Mithaiwala was bought up by his grandparents after his parents passed away. His grandfather Y.Y Mithiwala owns chains of sweet shop in Mumbai and is about to celebrate his 100th birthday. Rahul and his friends plan trip to Goa before celebration but his grandfather passes away before that and his last wish was to drop his ashes in two parts Ganga and Rameshwaram. Rahul and his friends decide to dump the ashes in Goa but their plans change when his grandmother wants to see him depart. At the station, he takes a Chennai Express to appease his grandmother. After he tries to board a train, he sees young girl Meenalochni Azhagusundaram (Meenamma) running towards him and helps her board the train. Meenamma is traced by her goons of father Durgeshwar Azhagusundaram a powerful villager as she is trying to escape a forced marriage from Tangaballi. Rahul his held captive and taken to Meenaamma's village where she tells everyone he is her boyfriend. One night Rahul tries to elope but crosses international borders and meets smugglers to prove himself innocent in front of cops he returns back to village where Meenamma is getting married to Thangaballi with no way to go he tries to take Meenaamma hostage where he is chased by Durgeshwar's men on the way Rahul and Meenamma part ways after a shouting match. Left to fend for himself in a South Indian area where the locals speak a foreign language, Rahul embarks on an epic, extraordinarily incredible journey of self-discovery, adventure and transformation to become a better person, he soon realizes his inner hero within and unleashes his true potential.—alex.mjacko@gmail.com

Rahul Mithaiwala (Shahrukh Khan) is a forty-year old bachelor who lives in Mumbai. His parents died in a car accident when he was eight years old and was brought up by grandparents. His grandfather has a sweet-selling chain store - Y.Y. Mithaiwala. Before his birth centenary celebration, two of Rahul's friends suggest a vacation in Goa which he accepts. On the eve of the celebration, his grandfather dies whilst watching a cricket match. His grandmother tells him that his grandfather desired to have his ashes divided into two parts - to be immersed in the Ganges River and Rameswaram respectively. She requests Rahul to go to Rameswaram and immerse them. Rahul reluctantly accepts her request but was also eager to attend the Goa trip.

He and his friends thus make plans to dump the ashes at Goa. But they were forced to change the plan when Rahul's grandmother wanted to personally see him off. This forces him to travel by train; he booked a single ticket on the Chennai Express. He plans to meet his friends at the Kalyan Junction station from where they would travel to Goa by car. Rahul forgets to take his grandfather's ashes on reaching the station and when he comes back to get it, the train started to roll on its wheels. While trying to step out of the train, he notices a girl (apparently South Indian) running to catch the train. He helps her board the moving train. He then sees four people running behind to catch the train, helps them all to get in and himself misses the platform to get off.

He tries to flirt with the girl assuming she does not know his language. To his surprise, she starts communicating by singing parodies of Hindi film music, so that the others don't understand. Rahul, on her demand, lends his mobile phone so that she can contact her friends; but the men with her throw it away from the moving train. He gets annoyed by this, however keeps quiet seeing that they carry weapons and guns along. He informs the ticket examiner about them but they push the man into a lake below the railway bridge.

Extremely panicked, Rahul learns that those men were actually kidnapping her and that her real name was Meenalochni Azhagusundaram (Deepika Padukone) a.k.a. Meenamma. She was trying to flee from a forced marriage to Tangaballi (Nikitin Dheer). Her father Durgeshwara Azhagusundaram (Sathyaraj), is a powerful headman of the Komban Kaum (an anagram of Kumbakonam) in Tamil Nadu. He wants her to marry Tangaballi so that he would assume control of the neighboring village as well.

Meena takes Rahul to her father and introduces him as her lover. Tangaballi challenges Rahul for a duel which he accepts in sign language. On the night of the fight, Rahul escapes with the help of a local Sikh policeman but in the turn of events, ends up in Komban Kaum again. Surrounded by sickle-wielding henchmen of Azhagusundaram, Rahul then pretends to take Meena as hostage and escapes again in her father's favorite car. When the jeep breaks down, they quarrel and go separate ways. But Rahul not knowing which way to go, comes back to Meena who takes him to the Vidhamba village where a wedding was taking place. Meena lies to the people that they are a married couple who have eloped and needed protection and rest.

The villagers grow fond of the couple and take care of them as long as they stay while Meena realizes that she has fallen in love with Rahul. When Rahul has plans of leaving secretly, Meena does not want to earn the distrust of the affectionate villagers. As he tries to leave, he is caught by Tangaballi but the villagers help them escape again. Meena who persuades him to immerse his grandpa's ashes travels with Rahul to Rameswaram. There they complete the rites and, on their way, back, Rahul, realizing that he has also fallen for Meena, does not tell her where they're going. He and Meena arrive back at the village to face the wrath of her father and Thangaballi. Rahul tries to talk some sense into Azhagu to make him understand and honor his daughter's wish. He also professes his love for Meena.

Rahul confronts Thangaballi and confidently challenges him to fight, for real this time. In the ensuing climactic knock down, drag out fist fight, Rahul is gravely wounded and bleeding profusely. Despite his injuries, Rahul survives and manages to overpower Thangaballi, but refrains from killing him. Thangaballi accepts his defeat graciously and bows out, humbly praising Rahul for his fortitude. Azhagu Sundaram also turns over a new leaf, accepting that the big, strong heart of a common man is a much greater, powerful force than their physical ability and political clout. Meena's father finally allows Rahul to marry his daughter. As Rahul and Meena embrace, the film ends with a voiceover from Rahul narrating that love knows no barriers of region or language barriers and that with a strong heart, there is no limit to what a common man can achieve.