The film was released in India on 12 December 1980 and was a multi-starrer with Sunil Dutt, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Raakhee Gulzar, Parveen Babi, Bindiya Goswami, Mazhar Khan and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

The film follows the murder of a police officer, Shiv (Dutt), whose two conmen brothers, Vijay (Bachchan) and Ravi (Kapoor), reform and join hands with a marksman, Rakesh (Sinha), to seek revenge from the culprit that is the invincible Shakaal (Kharbanda).

After diffusing a hostage situation, DCP Shiv Kumar (Sunil Dutt), an honest, brave and upright police officer, returns home to his wife, Sheetal (Raakhee Gulzar), and their young daughter, Guddi, announcing that he has been transferred to Mumbai.

Later, Vijay and Ravi meet a beautiful young girl, Renu (Bindiya Goswami), who owes money to a creditor whom she refers to as Chacha (Johnny Walker).

After their release from prison, Vijay and Ravi are helped by a legless beggar, Abdul (Mazhar Khan), in tracking down Renu and Chacha, who return them the ₹25,000 but have already spent the remaining ₹5,000.

However, Vijay and Ravi's following scam along with Sunita, Renu and Chacha as two godmen claiming to walk on water backfires as Shiv reads the advertisement posters and arrests his own brothers.

After learning about the two attempts on Shiv's life, Vijay and Ravi advise him to find a different line of work, stating that his profession is unpredictable, dangerous and unsuitable for a family man.

The island of Shakaal is equipped with hidden cameras and all sorts of automatic gadgets, including a pack of hunting dogs and a man-eating crocodile in an artificial pond below a rotating table with seats.

Although he manages to evade them too, Shakaal eventually shoots Shiv fatally on the beach from his helicopter, and has his dead body dumped back to Mumbai.

As Vijay, Ravi and Sheetal lament the tragic loss of Shiv, the mysterious man finally approaches them and introduces himself as Rakesh, a marksman and former circus performer who used to shoot targets blindfolded.

Even though the trio manages to blow up the warehouse, Shakaal retaliates by having his henchmen target Sheetal and Guddi on a remote bridge, but Rakesh saves them with the help of some horses in the stable of a nearby farmhouse.

Posing as a dance troupe, the trio, along with Sunita, Renu and Chacha, manages to enter the island and performs for Shakaal, who later shockingly captures them all and reveals that he had only sent Jagmohan (who was faking his injuries) to trap them in reality.

Just as the trio finally succeeds in capturing Shakaal after avoiding all the booby traps and is about to kill him, Sheetal intervenes and refuses to let them do so, pointing out that their action can be disrespectful to the law that Shiv upholds.