A poetic romance between Ishaan and Suman set against a concrete Bombay cityscape opens the film. Ishaan, the only son of an affluent businessman, and Sunny, the grandson of the head of the business house, are being groomed to take over the work. They share a strong male bonding, Ishaan's controlled, silent strength an anchor to Sunny's flamboyant and recklessly violent streak. The business, a construction empire built by Ishaan's father Nahar Singh and Sunny's grandfather, is rooted in violent and unlawful activities.

Ishaan, sheltered in comfort and security, begins to question his environment as his relationship with Suman, an idealistic young woman, opens a new world to him. As his love for her grows, so does his fear of losing her. Ishaan is caught between a life steeped in violence and his love for Suman who abhors violence.

Torn by his desire to leave the world of crime and a sense of loyalty to this father and his friend Sunny, Ishaan unwillingly gets drawn deeper into violence and finds himself a participant in an act of gruesome cold-blooded massacre. The image of a young girl disabled by the violence haunts his conscience. His quiet but firm resolve to withdraw from the business clashes with Nahar Singh's pragmatism, to build power at any cost and to legalise crime with that power, and with Sunny's refusal to release him from his oath of loyalty.

The events escalate with Ishaan's arrest and Nahar Singh's murder. Ishaan is finally forced to make a choice between personal loyalty and a larger allegiance to society and Truth.

Thakshak is a story about an individual caught in the eternal moral conflict, a choice between personal relationships and social responsibility. This conflict is manifest in Ishaan's character in the film who symbolises the youth of today, caught in a web of personal relationships, their apathy to social responsibility. He is beckoned to look beyond his own world by the idealistic Suman, her love gives him the strength to rise above the personal and see violence and crime in its true and ugly form garbed under the cloak of friendship and to uphold truth.