Baabul is a social drama covering the topic of widow re-marriage brought to celluloid by one of most celebrated movie mavericks of Indian cinema, B R Chopra and Ravi Chopra of B R Films. Baabul in essence is the story of a father who gave up all relationships to make one; it is the story of one man who overthrew traditions, berated conventions and questioned superstitions to bring happiness to his daughter in law.

Baabul trails the story of progressive and fun loving father and husband Balraj Kapoor (Amitabh Bachchan), happily married to wife Shobhana (Hema Malini) who have a son Avinash (Salman Khan) - the apple of their eyes. Soon when Malvika "Milli" Talwar (Rani Mukerjee) enters Avinash’s life, love blossoms and they soon marry and are blessed with a son.

However tradegy strikes the family when Avinash dies in an accident, and with this being too much for Milli she slowly falls into depression. With an unpleasant situation like this and no respite in the future, Balraj decides to re-marry Milli and who better with than her childhood friend Rajat (John Abraham) who has secretly loved her. Balraj faces huge opposition from his conservative elder brother Balwant (Om Puri), a man attached to his roots and tradition who shuns upon the idea of Milli remarrying.

Even in contemporary times, widow re-marriage is frowned upon in many parts of the world resulting in widows enduring a sentence of shame. In India alone, there are over 33 million widows who come from all cross sections and socio-economic structures in India. Over many centuries, there has been evident gender discrimination amongst Indian communities - whereas a widower can remarry as many times as he likes, a widow cannot remarry irrespective of her age. In poorer parts of the world such as in parts of India, widows face economic depression, illness and in many cases death, but the plight that widows face are not limited to economic boundaries. Widows from affluent families such as for character Milli face social stigma.