Dhadkan is about Anjali (Shilpa Shetty), a young woman who hails from an extremely rich and influential family. Her father Mr. Chauhan (Kiran Kumar) is a renowned businessman and has many dreams for his daughter. Anjali is in love with Dev (Sunil Shetty) who is very poor and often cannot even afford to clothe himself properly. Dev loves Anjali and wants to marry her — so he has to meet her father.

When Anjali puts forward to her parents the proposal of marrying Dev, she is rebuked and gets an outright refusal. Moreover, her parents have chosen for her a wealthy suitor from Delhi. Not wanting to hurt her parents Anjali finally gives in and marries Ram (Akshay Kumar) who her parents believe will be a perfect match for her.

The film starts with floods at Ranga sai pet in Warangal District. Houses, trains and people inundate in flood water and Siddharth, (Mahesh Babu) a young man saves the people up to his maximum effort. Eight of his friends assist him in the rescue activity.

On the other hand Chief Minister (Kota Srinivasa Rao) recommends the candidature of Pappu Yadav (Irfan Khan), for Assembly Elections. Pappu Yadav is a goonda who wishes to earn big through politics and power. To get the attention of people Pappu Yadav announces a sum of Rs.5 Crore for flood victims.

The food that needs to reach the victims of the flood is taken elsewhere to be sold out, an illegal way of earning money by selling the food and as well backing up the flood relief fund into the pockets of the politicians. Siddharth gets to know this through one of his friend and saves the stock in time and take it to the flood victims for distribution.

Daya Nayak (Kannada: ದಯಾ ನಾಯಕ್) is a sub-inspector with the Mumbai police force. He was reinstated in Mumbai Police, 16 June 2012. He had received suspension order based on allegations of disproportionate income by an underworld criminal. He rose to fame for having eliminated more than 80 gangsters of the Mumbai underworld as a member of the Mumbai Encounter Squad, which was created by the Maharashtra Government for tackling the increasing problems of underworld extortion, gang wars, and a terrible law and order situation.

In February 2006, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the Mumbai Police declared Nayak absconding; when he voluntarily surrendered at the court, they arrested him on a non-bailable warrant. Despite multiple raids and an intensive investigation, the ACB could not find any evidence against Nayak as possessing any assets disproportionate to his income. In 2008, a DGP rejected sanction to prosecute Mr. Nayak & Special Court for Anti-corruption rejected the DGP report and remanded the papers back to his office. This happened twice & according to info released under RTI Act by the State Home department; the final report tendered by the ACB to Special Court is pending Court decision. In July 2010, SC dismissed, for technical reasons, the private complaint saying that prior sanction had not been taken from the Mumbai Police chief before starting proceedings in the private complaint. Mr. Nayak; as per the info in this RTI reply has been reinstated pending a departmental probe.