The story is about a drought-ravaged land where a grand fire sacrifice is being conducted by Paravasu (Jackie Shroff), the chief priest, to please Lord Indra (Amitabh Bachchan). Paravasu has renounced from the world, forsaken his wife and all earthly pleasures.
  
Yavakri (Nagarjuna) is the cousin and a bitter rival of Paravasu since he is jealous of the latter occupying the position of the Chief Priest. He decides to seek revenge and hence seduces Paravasu's wife, Vishakha (Raveena Tandon).
 
Aravasu (Milind Soman), the younger brother of Paravasu is in love with a tribal girl, Nittilai (Sonali

Kulkarni). In order to marry her, he decides to go against his family but some unexpected events occur which changes history altogether and Sonali marries someone of her tribe.
 
Raibhya (Mohan Agashe), Paravasu's father wreaks his vengeance on Yavakri by unleashing on him a demon, the Rakshasa (Prabhu Deva), thus setting off an irrevocable chain of events.

The film is based on the famous play by Girish Karnad, "The Fire and the Rain". The story is based on the legend of Yavakri, a subplot of Mahabharat. Director Arjun Sajnani has tried his best

to make this a different film and has succeeded a lot in doing this. The film will surely appeal to the lovers of serious cinema. The script has been co-written by T. Jayashree and Anil Mehta. Anil Mehta also happens to be the choreographer of this film and he has some top films(Lagaan, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam) to his credit in the past. Arjun also deserves a pat for having extracted brilliant performances from the entire cast. Jackie Shroff has acted his part very well. Raveena Tandon has also given a wonderful performance and looks stunning. Nagarjuna looks handsome and done justice to his role. Milind Soman deserves maximum appreciation for his performance in this film. He has proved that he has more to himself than just modelling. Sonali Kulkarni leaves a mark. Prabhu Deva and Mohan Agashe are ok. Amitabh Bachchan too is good but the crowd

expected much more from him.   A major drawback of the film is that it is extremly slow-paced in the second half. The songs do net gel with the on-goings of the movie and hence seem a nuisance.

Overall, the movie will not appeal to everyone but rather a chunk of serious movie lovers.