main hoon na

Main Hoon Na tells the story of Major Ram Prasad Sharma (Shahrukh Khan) and his efforts to foil the terrorist Raghavan (Sunil Shetty). Major Sharma is simultaneously attempting to mend relations with his father's estranged first wife and his half-brother Lakshman; complications ensue.

Major Raghavan Data is a former military officer decommissioned and court martialed for executing eleven Pakistani civilians who accidentally crossed the border looking for water. He wants to sabotage a military project called Milaap (Unity), a first step towards friendship between India and Pakistan. India will release fifty Pakistanis imprisoned for crossing the border into India which most of them are illiterate villagers who wandered over the border by mistake. Raghavan does not want the state of war between India and Pakistan to end and believes that Pakistan will betray India in the process. He lost his son in the Indo-Pak wars in Kashmir and cherishes an abiding hatred for Pakistan and all Pakistanis.

First he tries to stop Project Milaap by killing the general in charge, General Amir Singh Bakshi (Kabir Bedi), the commander and chief of the Indian Army, during a national television interview with him taking many hostages. This fails due to Major Ram's intervention though Raghvan does succeed in killing Brigadier Shekhar Sharma (Naseeruddin Shah), Major Sharma's father, who had ordered his decommission. He also shoots the talk show host in the shoulder for interrupting his flow of questions for the General and also threatens his daughter Sanjana (Amrita Rao). As the elder Sharma dies, he tells Ram about his step mother Madhu (Kiron Kher) and step brother Lakshman (Zayed Khan) and begs Ram to re-establish relations with them, who are to be found at Darjeeling, a hill station on the Himalayas. Both brothers should cast their father's ashes into the Ganges river.

The General later asks Major Ram Sharma to go undercover as a student at the college to protect Sanjana since she will escape from anyone who is a military uniform. Ram pleads that he has never seen a civilian college before and doesn't know much about the current generation. The General points out that, by a strange coincidence, Sanjana attends school in the same town where Lakshman lives, so Ram can protect Sanjana and look for Lakshman at the same time. Ram goes undercover as a student returning to college after many years away taking care of the family business to complete his education. He is much older than the other students, who at first make fun of him because of his lack of new-generation styles. He also has to deal with the many goofy teachers as well the idiotic forgetful principal of the college as well.

He finds Lakshman a.k.a. Lucky who is somewhat of a legend and idol at the school having failed the exams three times and who is later revealed to be Ram's brother when his life is in danger when Lucky and another fellow student, Vivek, race to bring down the school flag to win a kiss from Vivek's pretty girlfriend, Mini (Rakhi Sawant). Sanjana, nicknamed Sanju, is Lucky's best friend and is secretly jealous that other girls can get his attention but she can't. Ram shocks everyone with his effort to save Lucky from falling down with his military training. He later becomes a sensation among the students and teachers and also befriending Lucky and Sanjana and falls in love with the chemistry teacher Chandani (Sushmita Sen) after the students dare him to sing for anyone new coming in through the college's main entrance. Meanwhile Raghvan gives an order to shoot a friend of Lucky and Sanjana named Percy shocking many of his comrades in order to show that if he can kill one of her friends, he can definitely kill her as well. Ram and his friends go to the movies until he spots a SUV and Percy. Shocked, Ram quickly intervenes causing Raghvan's right-hand man, Khan, to fail killing him with a sniper rifle. Ram then chases them down and captures Khan, whom he tortures to get information about Raghvan and his operations on stopping Project Milaap. Ram also convinces Sanjana to talk to her father and also helps her on getting Lucky's attention, which she later feels as cheating him.

Raghvan is frustrated with Major Ram's actions and decides to go undercover as a teacher at the college. When the prom comes and after everyone dances, Chandani is kidnapped by Raghvan's men right before Ram's eyes who later chases them and kills them, the last one holding her hostage by shooting him in the leg through Chandani's sari and then finishing him off. Later Raghvan tells Lucky's family about Ram being his step brother learning it from the idiotic principal of the college. Lucky and his mother have always suffered due to the fact that Shekhar had refused to abandon Ram after Ram's mother died even if it meant losing Lucky and Madhu (who refused to live everyday with a reminder of her husband's infidelity). Lucky had previously expressed his hatred for the army and his son not knowing it is Ram, hurting Ram's feelings. Ram later tells them that he came to them to complete his father's last wish to reunite the family showing them his ashes in the pot and leaving them in grief after hearing about his death.

Raghvan later takes the entire school hostage and asks for Khan to be released, Major Ram in handcuffs brought to him by a helicopter, and Project Milaap to be stopped or everyone will be executed. When General Bakshi tries to stop Project Milaap, Ram stops him saying that taking this opportunity away will mean another many years of hatred between India and Pakistan, especially since Pakistan agreed to free fifty Indian prisoners in return. There he arrives in a hall where all the frightened and worried students and teachers are being held along with Lucky and Sanjana. Khan has been convinced by Ram that Raghvan is wrong and helps Ram fake his own death horrifying the students and shocking Raghvan who doesn't want Ram to die yet. Ram then proceeds to kill the rest of the terrorists keeping the students within the hall and sets them free. Raghvan is shocked and tells his comrades to search for the students and kills Khan for betraying him after he tells him that he has lied about his mission of making India a better country.

Meanwhile General Bakshi meets with a Pakistani army general at the border who congratulates him on the success of the project and the now releasing of the prisoners. Raghvan finds Ram and battles Ram in a deserted part of the school. Lucky on the other hand gets onto an army helicopter to rescue Ram. After the fight, Raghvan has a gun being pointed at Ram and threatens him to turn around and look at his death before his eyes. Ram turns around and tells him that it is a shame that he always forgets how a story ends with the bad guy always dying at the end by showing him a pin he had pulled of one of his hand grenades secretly. As he runs towards the chopper, Raghvan closes his eyes and dies in the fiery explosion which also sets off the explosives planted underneath the roof. Ram jumps off just in time when the entire roof has gone up in flames. On the border, Pakistani and Indian prisoners are released and returned to their longing families and Ram and Lucky empty their father's ashes into the Ganges river. The movie then ends with the end credits appearing in the form of a music video.