The Plot Summary of A Suitable Boy
In 1951, Lata Mehra, at 19, attends her older sister Savita’s wedding to Pran Kapoor, a university lecturer. Mrs. Rupa Mehra, Lata’s mother, suggests that it is time for Lata to marry, which Lata dismisses because she plans to focus on her studies in English literature. Nonetheless, Mrs. Rupa Mehra begins to reach out to her friends and family in search of a suitable boy for Lata.
Meanwhile, Lata is contacted multiple times by a boy her own age, and she falls in love with him after a few meetings. His name is Kabir Durrani, and when Lata discovers he is Muslim, she is devastated since her Hindu family would never allow her to marry a Muslim man. When her early morning meetings with Kabir are discovered, she attempts to flee with him, but he refuses. Lata eventually accepts to accompany her mother to Calcutta to live with her haughty older brother Arun, who is already married.
As Lata walks away, she is noticed by Haresh Khanna, an aspiring shoe manufacturer who works with Kedarnath Tandon, Pran’s older sister Veena’s spouse. Her beauty and suffering captivate him.
Lata is astonished to find herself enjoying her stay in Calcutta with her brother and his wife Meenakshi. She meets Meenakshi’s eccentric family, the Chatterjis, and becomes close to her older brother, Amit, an England-educated poet who is under familial pressure to marry. Though Amit first intended to treat Lata as a member of his extended family, he soon begins to view her as a potential wife. Mrs. Rupa Mehra is shocked to learn that Amit and Lata are discussing marriage because she dislikes Meenakshi and so dislikes the Chatterjis.
She travels to Delhi to restart her efforts to locate Lata a husband. She meets Haresh Khanna by chance and determines he is right for Lata. Despite his feelings for another woman (who he cannot marry owing to her family’s opposition), Haresh accepts to see Lata. Lata considers the thought of Haresh marrying absurd, but she has a pleasant time with him and gives him permission to write to her.
When she returns home, she learns that Kabir played a role in reconciling her sister-in-law Veena with her little son after a stampede separated them. Despite her resolve to forget Kabir, she is astonished when they are both cast in the university’s production of Twelfth Night. Pran, her brother-in-law, is hospitalized during rehearsals, and his wife Savita gives birth. Lata takes on a more important role in caring for her sister and niece, which leads her to realize her mother is solely concerned with her happiness and safety. She begins corresponding with Haresh more enthusiastically and, despite her attraction to Kabir, informs him that she is no longer interested in marrying him.
Haresh loses his managing position at the shoe factory but insinuates himself into a lower-level post as a foreman at the Praha shoe plant with the promise of advancement. His new situation does not impress Arun and Meenakshi, who are also biased against him because they are aware of Amit’s desire for Lata and wish to promote that relationship.
The Mehra family returns to Calcutta in the new year to spend time with Arun and Meenakshi and to reunite with Haresh. Haresh, Kabir, and Amit all meet during a cricket match and recognize that they are all loosely acquainted, but fail to realize that they are all, in some manner, dating Lata. Kabir is in Calcutta, attempting to summon the confidence to speak to Lata, but he fails, and Lata receives a letter from her best friend alerting her that Kabir was overheard having an intimate chat with another woman. Haresh is more persistent in courting Lata, but when she casually calls him cruel, he takes offense and their romance comes to a halt.
Amit arrives at Lata’s school in the new year on Kabir’s invitation. She reconnects with Kabir and discovers that the information she received about him courting another woman was untrue. She does, however, tell him that she is genuinely writing to Haresh and is really considering marrying him. Amit also uses this occasion to make a more serious proposal to Lata. Lata meets Kabir one more time, and she realizes that her feelings for him are not the foundation for a happy marriage. After receiving an apologetic letter from Haresh renewing his marriage proposal and a second letter from Arun forcefully advising her to reject Haresh, Lata chooses to marry Haresh once and for all.
The story of Maan Kapoor, a brother to her brother-in-law Pran, runs parallel to the main plot. Maan is the hapless youngest kid of respected politician and state Revenue Minister Mahesh Kapoor. Maan witnesses the courtesan singer Saeeda Bai perform at a Holi festival. He pays her a visit and begins courting her. They fall in love. Later, Saeeda Bai realizes that her love for him is interfering with her work and reputation. Under the guise of wanting Maan to acquire flawless Urdu, she sends him away with her young sister Tasneem’s Urdu teacher, Rasheed, to his rural hamlet. Maan spends time getting to know Rasheed’s family, who are politically powerful yet unethical and corrupt.
When Maan returns to Brahmpur, he restarts his love affair with Saeeda Bai and earns the approval of his father, who plans to run for office again in the seat where Rasheed’s family resides. After campaigning with his father, Maan returns to Saeeda Bai’s house, where he encounters his buddy Firoz and suspects, based on Saeeda Bai’s veiled comments, that the two had been having an affair behind his back. Firoz had actually come to propose to Tasneem when Saeeda Bai revealed that Tasneem is her secret daughter and Firoz’s half-sister. In the ensuing commotion, Maan stabs Firoz in a jealous rage. Following the incident, his father loses his seat, and his mother dies from a series of strokes.
When Firoz recovers, he claims that the stabbing was caused by his own carelessness, and his friend Maan is set free. The wedding of Lata and Haresh is joyfully attended by all except Kabir, who is invited but does not attend. Lata and Haresh ride a train to his home a few days later to begin their new life together.