Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) father is brutally lynched by villagers after being framed by Kancha Cheena (Danny Denzongpa), and his family is forced to flee. The young Vijay vows revenge, and grows up protecting his sister and mother by becoming a gangster himself. Eventually he works his way up the ladder until he is face to face with the men who killed his father, but by this time he is little different from them, and his actions have put his family in the line of danger once more.