Arjun Singh (Dharmendra) is a dare-devil upright cop who believes in dealing strongly with criminals. D.I.G. Khan (Shammi Kapoor) does not agree with his ways and there is always a disagreement between the two. Arjun is sent on a special mission to Shanti Nagar, which in under the police scanner due to some shady activities going on there. On reaching Shanti Nagar, Arjun sees that it is ruled by a wealthy businessman, Deen Bandhu Deena Nath aka D.B.D.N., who has very high contacts. He has terrorised the town with the help of his convoy of uniformed men who kill the citizens at will. Arjun realises that D.B.D.N is none other than Mangal Singh, the corrupt police officer who had killed Arjun's father (Parikshit Sahni) when Arjun was a child. Arjun gets thirsty for D.B.D.N's blood, but is stopped by D.I.G Khan. But when D.B.D.N kills Arjun's young son (Jugal Hansraj), Arjun, with the help of D.I.G Khan sets out to overturn the evil rule (Hukumat) of D.B.D.N

• Dharmendra as Arjun Singh
• Rati Agnihotri
• Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Deenbandhu Deenanath (DBDN)
• Prem Chopra
• Shammi Kapoor
• Joginder
• Swapna

The film was remade in Tamil as Puthiya Vaanam (1988), with Sathyaraj in Dharmendra's role and became huge hit there also.

Hukumat went on to become the biggest hit of 1987 and even made more money than the much hyped Mr. India made. It was the first ever hit for director Anil Sharma. The film was celebrated at the 2003 Zee Cine Awards, hosted by Anil Kapoor as one of the greatest hits of Indian cinema. The film was considered to have had great songs, powerful dialogue delivery, excellent cinematography, and the acting of Dharmendra also received much praise. By many, this film was ranked as one of the best ever to be made in the history of Bollywood. The protagonist, Dharmendra, was critically acclaimed widely for his mannerisms, anger, charisma, emotions, powerful delivery of dialogues and ingenuity, which were all conveyed excellently in a full blend in the film. His pairing with Rati proved to be immensely successful as the duo received praise for their chemistry. It was well received by the Indian audience. Also, the brief duet picturised on them was praised and considered exceptional. Sadashiv is a one-man treat and he is truly one of India's greatest villains.Hukumat was a huge financial as well as a critical success, grossing a huge ?110 million (which was a huge gross at that point of time in Bollywood) and became a milestone film, widely regarded as a cult classic in Indian Cinema.^[5]

Music for the film was scored by the duo of Laxmikant-Pyarelal.^[6] All lyrics are by Verma Malik.