Road to Sangam

A simple story of a how a God fearing, devout Muslim mechanic named Hashmatullah (Paresh Rawal), resident of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, who has been entrusted the job of repairing an old Ford Flathead engine not knowing the historic significance – that it once carried the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi which were immersed in the holy Triveni Sangam, imbibes the Gandhian values. The film begins with an imaginary sequence of events. The story has been imagined such that after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in 1948, his ashes were divided into 20 parts and sent to different provinces of India and then brought back, recollected and dispersed in Triveni Sangam in Allahabad. All (but one) parts of his ashes were dispersed in 1948 but one part somehow lay forgotten in a locker of Orissa State Bank for decades until one day this error is realised and Gandhi's grandson claims it back by filing an application in the Orissa High Court. Government decides to honour Mahatma Gandhi's grandson's wish is to disperse this forgotten part of ashes in Triveni Sangam in the same way the other parts of the ashes were dispersed. So the same Ford lorry which was used in 1948 is to be used again, and its engine has been given to Hashmat (Paresh Rawal) to be repaired. Hashmat comes to know about historic significance of the engine he is repairing when a news channel reporter comes to interview him. In another parallel development, there has been a terrorist bomb blast in a court of Uttar Pradesh. In relation to that bomb attack, Uttar Pradesh Police arrests some suspects (suspected to have links with the terror organisation Hizb-ul-Mujahideen) from various cities of Uttar Pradesh including the Muslim neighbourhood of Allahabad, where Hashmat lives. Hashmat is General Secretary of the Managing Committee of the main Mosque of Allahabad (Masjid-e-Azam). The Mosque Committee decides to hold a protest against the government and Police outside the Court Complex for arresting Muslim suspects. While Police