 Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) seeks to avenge the cold-blooded massacre of his family at the hands of notorious bandit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). Since he is unable to do so on his own, he recruits Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jaidev (Amitabh Bachchan). Both are jailbirds and have in and out of various jails. They are reportedly known to carry out any work provided the compensation is right. Both agree to capture Gabbar Singh live and hand him over to Baldev Singh. Things do not go as planned. Veeru falls for the local horse carriage driver Basanti (Hema Malini); and Jai starts to have romantic feelings for Baldev Singh s widowed daughter-in-law, Radha (Jaya Bhaduri). To make matters worse, Gabbar has sworn to kill both Jai and Veeru, and holds Basanti as a hostage, to lure them to him