Embedded with laughs, this classic romantic comedy opens with Kishanlal (Pran), a chauffeur, as he takes the blame for a fatal hit-and-run accident committed by his mob boss employer, Robert (Jeevan), on the assurance that his family's income will be tripled and their welfare looked after. He returns from prison to find his wife, Bharati (Nirupa Roy) suffering from tuberculosis and his three sons starving.
Seeking help from Robert for the sake of his family, he is ridiculed, humiliated and repudiated, until he turns on Robert and tries to kill him. Making his escape, Kishanlal inadvertently takes a car containing a shipment of gold bullion. Robert's goons give chase.
Kishanlal goes home to rescue his family – only to find his wife's suicide note. Unknown to him, she fails and is struck blind. He leaves his sons in a public park (at the foot of a statue of Gandhi) while he draws off the pursuing goons. In the car chase that follows he crashes, is thrown clear of the wreck, and discovers the gold.
But by the time he returns to the park with his riches, his three children have vanished. Amar, the oldest, has been adopted by a Hindu policeman; a Muslim tailor adopts the youngest and names him Akbar; and a Catholic priest, finding the middle son asleep on the steps of his church, fosters him and names him Anthony.
In revenge, Kishanlal kidnaps Robert's daughter Jenny and raises her as his niece, using the gold to destroy Robert's business and set himself up as mob boss instead.
Amar (Vinod Khanna) becomes a policeman; Akbar (Rishi Kapoor) becomes a singer; the middle brother, Anthony (Amitabh Bachchan), becomes a likable, socially conscious scamp who runs quasi-legal operations and makes God his 'partner' by donating half his income to charity. The three meet when they donate blood for an accident victim, unaware that they are related – or that the recipient is their biological mother Bharati.
Their lives become entangled in an incredible web of coincidences and furious action sequences — interspersed with songs – when Amar's adopted father is seriously wounded and Anthony falls in love with Jenny, Robert's long-lost daughter. Because of it his adoptive father, the priest, is murdered. In their pursuit of justice their paths cross again until, combining efforts, the brothers discover both the culprit and their mutual heritage.
In addition to the ongoing feud between Robert and Kishanlal, each son meets and courts – with greater or lesser difficulty – their love interests. When the grieving mother regains her sight at a Diwali festival in honor of Sai Baba, one by one the family is re-united and Robert, who caused their suffering, is finally imprisoned.