A thief named Shyamu (Amitabh Bachchan) who has made stealing his career decides to go straight after the death of his mentor (Madan Puri).

On the run from police for committing a series of robberies in the past, he ends up in a village and he comes across a poet named Deepak (also Amitabh Bachchan) and comes to his aid.

The change in the life of now Deepak the poet, from Shyamu, is due to a stage artist and dancer, Mala Mumtaz (Indian actress), who is exquisitely beautiful, as a woman and human being, and who falls in love with him, being part of the same stage company, Roop Kala Theatre.

For her, he wants to finish his old identity fully, but finds out that Deepak had a love interest in Rajni (Kumud Chhugani),[1] who is a women's rights activist and daughter of the same multi millionaire, Seth Harnaam Das, in whose house, he as Shyamu the thief, had committed his last robbery, but had returned all the stolen articles to the police, except for a ring which he had gifted to Mala.

The story evolves into a society eye opener, of the transformation of a human being from the path of crime, to goodness, his re-acceptance in ideological cast, and is a Hindi cinema classic worth watching.