Mangal Singh [Rajesh Khanna] has spent years in the shadows as a career criminal, and the law finally catches up with him when he is sentenced to hang for murdering a man for the sake of roti — a brutal act born from hunger that haunts him as the noose tightens. From the underworld, the ruthless don Suraj [Pinchoo Kapoor] pulls the strings of his fate, raising him as a loyal hand in crime and plotting a daring escape from jail, all while a wary inspector shadows their every move. In a desperate bid for freedom, Mangal orchestrates an audacious break on a train, tossing a fellow passenger Shravan Kumar [Vijay Arora] off the carriage to clear a path toward liberty.
Mangal lands in a small village in Northern India, where a chance encounter with a local restaurateur, Bijli [Mumtaz Askari], changes his trajectory. With Bijli’s quiet but steadfast help, he sheds his old identity and becomes a teacher, taking the name Ramu and seeking shelter under the roof of Shravan’s parents, Lalaji [Om Prakash] and Malti [Nirupa Roy], who are blind and unaware that their guest is the man who killed Shravan while escaping the police. In this fragile cover, Mangal/Lamu slowly builds a life of ordinary purpose, feeding a growing sense of responsibility that contradicts his violent past, while Bijli’s feelings for him deepen in the glow of his new, gentle persona.
As Bijli’s love grows, a cloud of truth begins to lift. Inspector Jagdish Raj arrives in the village to search for Mangal and informs Lalaji and Malti about Shravan’s death—purportedly at the hands of the same man they harbor. The revelation unsettles the house and shakes Mangal’s carefully constructed disguise, forcing him to confront the reality of Shravan’s parents and the fate they fear. In this moment, Mangal also comes to understand the full weight of Shravan’s life and the sorrow carried by his parents, and he faces the question of what his own redemption would mean for them.
Amid the unraveling truth, Mangal acts to repair the fractures he has caused. He helps reunite Lalaji’s long-lost daughter with him, an act that somehow frees Shravan’s house from its painful burden. With that newfound grace, Mangal guides Shravan’s parents on a holy pilgrimage with Bijli, a journey that becomes a test of faith, forgiveness, and renewed purpose. On this path, he again encounters the living Shravan, and the moment crystallizes into a choice — to pardon Shravan and allow him to escape the clutches of the police, a decision that Bijli cannot fully accept and pursues.
The pursuit spirals toward tragedy. In a dramatic turn, Suraj shoots Bijli, sealing her fate as the snow-laden landscape bears witness to their fall. Suraj himself meets a harsher end in a snow avalanche, a ruthless wager paid back by the cruel laws of fate. The search for Mangal culminates in a tense showdown where the inspector, Sujit Kumar, shoots the aging criminal. As Mangal lies dying, he clutches a gun that is inexplicably unloaded, uttering a final, quiet plea that no one should be deprived of roti. In the end, the story returns to its core question: at what cost does hunger blur the line between crime and atonement, and who among us deserves mercy when the specter of survival drives every choice?
