[4] The film begins with a car chase in Chicago, which leads to a scuffle between a man ostensibly named Jude Rosario and an American male known as Matthew Brody.

A flashback to six months prior shows the office of the Indian RAW chief Roy, where he and his trusted men plan a daring covert operation.

The man, known as Jude Rosario in the opening sequence, is shown to be Captain Daniyal Khan, a dead-end ex-soldier with a completely deadpan sense of life and death which is pulled out of oblivion and pressed into service by the spy agency to wreak vengeance on the men who planned the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

He agrees on the assurance that he will be reinstated in the Indian army to the same rank from which he was court-martialled, which meant regaining the respect of his estranged father, retd.

On reaffirming his identity after breaking into his apartment, Daniyal rigs up an explosion which kills Sajid, which makes the headlines explaining it was accidental, resulting in an investigation by the Pakistani ISI.

After killing Headley by plugging the poisonous battery into a showerhead he usually uses, Brody, who supposedly died upon falling in the river, is found alive, and Daniyal is released as his earlier sentence is rendered null and void.

There, Daniyal is held captive by the L-e-T and is forced into revealing the purpose of killing Sajid Mir and David Headley, on camera.

There, they make plans of killing Saeed with the help of a local restaurant owner and RAW agent Khalid, by an explosive planted in the mic used during his public rally.

Umvi is killed with the help of a nurse Amina Bi, a mother who lost her militant son in a suicide attack, who replaces his regular medicine with poison, later shooting herself after the police find her at her home.

[20] The shoot of the film required a recreation of a Syrian refugee camp, which involved almost 400 locals in acting as rebel militias.

[22] In January 2014, action sequences were shot in Kashmir near Pahalgam hill station and in a ski resort in Gulmarg for five days.

[24] In March 2014, filming continued in a small town in Malerkotla, Punjab where the area was recreated to resemble a Pakistani marketplace.

[26] In July 2014, filming resumed in London, United Kingdom near the Houses of Parliament on the banks of River Thames, Charing Cross station, The Oval cricket ground in Lambeth and Ealing road in Wembley.

[27][28][29] The next shooting schedule was done in various locations in Vancouver, Canada in August 2014, including the centre of West Hastings and Thurlow streets which involved several high-octane chase sequences.

[30][31] In September 2014, the last schedule of the film was completed in Mumbai, with scenes being shot at the city's eastern ferry wharf, near the Gateway of India, and at Filmistan Studios in the suburb of Goregaon.

[32][33] An underwater action sequence has been shot by Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif at the Orca Dive Club in Mumbai.

[47] BizAsia gave a rating of 7 out of 10 stating Pritam does a good job on bringing the flavours of Western Pakistan home to Bollywood, fitting perfectly with the theme of the film, particularly praising "Afghan Jalebi".

[59] Shubha Shetty-Saha of Mid-day gave it 3 stars stating the "powerful story is diluted by the use of too many cinematic liberties and a rather lazy screenplay", "Flaws aside, it talks of a real concern facing all of us, even while taking a flight of fantasy".