A thief named Shyamu (Amitabh Bachchan) who has made stealing his career decides to go straight after the death of his mentor (Madan Puri). On the run from police for committing a series of robberies in the past, he ends up in a village and he comes across a poet named Deepak (also Amitabh Bachchan) and comes to his aid. Taking advantage of the fact that Deepak is his lookalike he decides to steal his identity by killing him. However, he backs out of killing him when he discovers Deepak is already dying of an illness. After Deepak's death he decides to steal his identity and informs the police that Deepak is actually the thief Shyamu. However a police inspector (Ajit Khan) becomes suspicious that Shyamu is actually alive and masquerading as the poet Deepak.

The change in the life of now Deepak the poet, from Shyamu, is due to a stage artist and dancer, Mala Mumtaz (Indian actress), who is exquisitely beautiful, as a woman and human being, and who falls in love with him, being part of the same stage company, Roop Kala Theatre. For her, he wants to finish his old identity fully, but finds out that Deepak had a love interest in Rajni (Kumud Chhugani),^[1] who is a women's rights activist and daughter of the same multi millionaire, Seth Harnaam Das, in whose house, he as Shyamu the thief, had committed his last robbery, but had returned all the stolen articles to the police, except for a ring which he had gifted to Mala. He wants to retrieve the letters from Rajni, which Deepak had written to her, for fear, that the police will conduct a handwriting test on him with them, and woos Rajni. Mala is taken aback when she finds out the same, as also the real identity of now Deepak the poet, from Inspector Kumar.

The story evolves into a society eye opener, of the transformation of a human being from the path of crime, to goodness, his re-acceptance in ideological cast, and is a Hindi cinema classic worth watching.

• Amitabh Bachchan as
  • Shyamu
  • Deepak
• Mumtaz as Mala
• Ajit as Inspector Kumar
• Ranjeet as Ranjeet
• Madan Puri as Shyamu's Mentor
• Gajanan Jagirdar as Seth Harnamdas
• Kumud Chuggani as Rajni
• Anjana Mumtaz as Kamla
• O. P. Ralhan as Preetam
• Tun Tun as Kavita
• Sardar Akhtar as Mala's Mother
• Rammohan Sharma as Inspector Bedi
• Asit Sen as Roopkala Theatre Owner
• Pinchoo Kapoor as Doctor

• Bandhe Hath at IMDb