David D'Costa (Amitabh Bachchan) lives a relatively poor life in Madras (now Chennai) with his wife Mary D'Costa (Jayaprada) who is pregnant. He literally worships the Member of Parliament Chaturvedi (Sadashiv Amrapurkar), and is even willing to die for him. He introduces Mary to Chaturvedi, and with his blessings they name the new-born son James. Then one day while he is busy obstructing rail traffic, he gets arrested and is bailed out by Mahesh (Anupam Kher) When he returns home he finds that Mary has committed suicide. She left a note blaming Chaturvedi for raping her. An upset David goes to confront Chaturvedi, is intercepted by Police Inspector Roop Kumar Sahay (Dalip Tahil) and Dr. Verma (Bharat Kapoor), the evidence is destroyed, and he is sentenced to 24 years in prison for Mary's murder. He asks his friend Mahesh to look after James in his long absence. Twenty-four years later, David is released, he goes to visit Mahesh and is shocked to find that Mahesh has changed, he is no longer a boot-legger, he now lives a wealthy life-style, he wants David to forget the past, and live with his CID Inspector son Vijay (also Amitabh Bachchan). David is devastated with this news, but is determined to avenge his wrongful conviction and Mary's death, so he sets about to kill his tormentors one by one - the only obstruction he faces is none other than Vijay who, unaware of David being his father, is out to protect the three people.