Amitabh Bachchan stars as Dharam Chand, known as Dharma, a warm-hearted village farmer whose life revolves around his wife Waheeda Rehman Radha and their newborn son, Raju. When Ajit Anwar Hussain, Sujit Sujit Kumar, and a friend named Suresh rush to their aid after a tiger attack, the grateful trio offers Dharma a future in Bombay: a job in a city warehouse if he ever decides to visit. The family’s simple joy is tested by hardship, and when a severe drought and economic strain grip their village, they uproot to the bustling metropolis, where Ajit makes Dharma the manager of his warehouse.
In Bombay, Dharma proves to be honest and courteous, earning the trust of his bosses and neighbors alike. Yet a cruel twist of fate awaits. Dharma is tricked into signing a document that makes him the owner of the very warehouse he’s been managing for others. A police raid soon follows, and he is arrested on charges of trafficking gold and drugs. His ignorance of the law and the manipulation of his employers pull him into a system that treats him as guilty before proven innocent. The judge sentences him to 18 months in jail, with an additional six months for contempt of court, leaving his wife and family to endure hardship back home. Sujit visits the destitute family with offers of compensation, but Radha refuses any money tied to ill-gotten wealth. She toils as a maid and stitches clothes for locals, her health strained by pregnancy. While Radha fights to hold the family together, a tragedy unfolds: she suffers a fall and is hospitalized, where Laxmi Heena Kausar—Dharma’s sister-in-law—grapples with the grim reality around her.
Laxmi, trying to secure medicine prescribed by the doctor, seeks help from Sujit. He provides money, but a brutal act follows: he rapes her before she can reach the hospital. Laxmi arrives with the medicine, and Dharma, then on parole, receives her with the fevered news that their baby has died—born of Radha’s own suffering and the earlier accident. The moment Dharma learns of the baby’s death and Radha’s frailty, his heartbreak hardens into resolve. When he returns, his bosses offer compensation, but he rejects it, insisting that the real losses—the baby and his sister—be accounted for. The seeds of vengeance take root, and the man who once wore his honesty like a badge starts moving along a darker path.
The climax unfolds with calculated ruthlessness. Dharma pressures Sujit to confess, getting him to write a letter of admission and then destroying him by making it look like suicide. Inspector Khan [Kader Khan] arrives, but without hard evidence he cannot arrest Dharma, and the cycle of suspicion continues. To shield his operation and secure his family’s future, Dharma seizes control of a hotel lease, binding himself with a modest monthly payment to keep enemies at bay. Yet Ajit’s shadow over Dharma’s life does not fade. He plants a bomb in Dharma’s home in a bid to wipe out Dharma’s family; Dharma survives but is severely injured, while Khan warns him that the life he’s chosen will eventually destroy him.
Dharma then targets Suresh, straining the already fragile thread of their criminal enterprise. He lures Suresh into a drunken clarity, extracts what he can, and pushes him down the stairs to stage an accident. Khan returns, still unable to pin anything on Dharma due to lack of conclusive evidence. After recovering, Dharma eliminates Ajit, severing the last ties to the old circle of crime, and moves to sever the toxic influences from his son’s life by sending Raju to London for education. Years pass, and Raju [Amitabh Bachchan] returns, ready to marry Geeta Verma [Neetu Singh] in London. Yet Dharma’s insistence on honoring a prior promise complicates the path to his son’s happiness: he had pledged to unite Raju with his business partner Rajan’s daughter, a decision bound up with old loyalties and a web of shifting allegiances.
Rajan, a former Ajit associate and a figure connected to Dharma’s business, becomes a thorn in Dharma’s side when he discovers that Ajit is not truly gone. Under pressure, Rajan leans toward Ajit’s camp and plots to end Dharma’s hold on the family and business. In a harrowing turn, a failed attempt to kill Dharma ends up costing Dharma’s wife Radha her life. Realizing the truth behind Khan’s cautions, Dharma faces the bitter reality of his choices. In a final, fateful duel with his rivals, he chooses to risk everything to secure his son’s future, even as the weight of his past closes in around him. The story ends with Dharma steering toward his own reckoning, a man who sought justice for his family but found that the road to redemption could ultimately demand the hardest sacrifice.
