Loosely based on Dudley Moore's 'Arthur'. Amithabh plays a spoilt but generous hearted drunk son of an extremely rich and uncaring father. Om Prakash plays the surrogate father and Jaya Pradha provides the romantic liason.

Shiva is being groomed to become a policeman just like his father Purshottam Sathe. When his father refuses to let the son of a local MLA illegally park his car, Purshottam is transferred to the dangerous basti of Kala Chowk. When his father is beaten by henchmen of the local crimelord, Shiva steps in to help. However his defeating of the crimelord and his men has an untoward result. Shiva is hailed as the new crimelord and criminals start collecting protection money in his name.

Vaidehi (Manisha Koirala) gets married to Raghuvir (Jackie Shroff), an NRI. Suffering the agony of an unhappy marriage, she decides to run away from him when she learns that she is pregnant and he wants to take the child away from her. In her pursuit for freedom, she meets Mythili (Mahima Chaudhury) a bride-to-be, Janaki (Madhuri Dixit) a theatre artist and Ramdulari (Rekha) a village midwife - all of whom are victims of male chauvinism. They however refuse to be put down and fight for their rights.