A story of two estranged families, Hulchul has the premier family of a small town, headed by Fiery Angaarchand(Amrish Puri), an influential landlord, pitted against the family headed by Lakshmidevi, a rich landlady of the neighbouring village. Angaarchand and his family of four sons(Jackie Shroff, Paresh Rawal, Arbaaz Khan and Akshay Khanna) have taken a vow to stay away from women owing to a past family tragedy(apparently caused by womankind), and the mere mention of the opposite sex is strictly forbidden.

At the same time, Lakshidevi is waiting for an opportunity to seek revenge on Angaarchand and his family. As luck would have it, Angaarchand's youngest son, Jai, and Lakshidevi's grand-daughter, Anjali fall in love.

Or do they? In the greatest con of romantic cinema to-date, what follows is a comedy of errors with deceit of a rather naughty kind between the leads with their families in tow trying to be one up on the other.