The film stars Peter O'Toole, Bryan Brown, John Rhys-Davies, Nadira, Julian Glover, Jalal Agha and Ravi Sheth in the title role.

Kim is hired as a guide by a travelling Tibetan lama (Peter O'Toole) on a search for a river where Budda hurled an arrow, turning it into a place of redemption.

He also befriends an astute Afghan horse-dealer named Mahbub Ali (Bryan Brown), a British Secret Service agent, who helps him with his task.

[3] The screenplay was essentially close to Kipling's original; much more so than the 1950 movie with Errol Flynn, except for an added subplot about the love of a deserting Scottish soldier with an Indian girl.

[citation needed] The New York Times said "the plot rambles rather confusingly" and O'Toole "has a tendency to lurch about like some tipsy schoolmaster, but even he seems charmed by young Mr. Sheth" and that the film "still works nicely as family entertainment.