The movie is about the life of the legendary and controversial artist Raja Ravi Varma.
The narrative begins with the artist being arrested and charged with obscenity, immorality and hurting religious sentiments as he had painted nudes of Indian mythological characters.
He finds the the woman of his artistic dreams, Sugandha, in a temple. She becomes his muse. Her beauty inspired him to create his famous paintings of Saraswati with the Veena and also other nude paintings.
Later in his life he also tries to liberate art from the ties of elite patronage.