Zanjeer is a 1973 Indian Hindi-language action crime film directed and produced by Prakash Mehra from a screenplay written by Salim–Javed. It stars Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Pran, Ajit Khan and Bindu. At a time when India was suffering from exceptional corruption and low economic growth and the common man was left with frustration and anger over the system, Zanjeer began shifting Hindi cinema in a violent and aggressive direction. The film also ended the struggling period for Bachchan, which turned him into a rising star. It was a blockbuster success domestically in India and overseas in the Soviet Union.

Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but also include comedy, and, in turn, is divided into many sub-genres, such as mystery, suspense or noir.