All the monsters are metaphorical.

 Dharam Veer (1977) is not a movie that fits into neat genre categories. It's a sprawling mess of a movie, really,but it's got it all - fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles, and a dubious grasp of historical accuracy.

I'll start at the beginning.  No,it's too much - let me sum up.  Princess Meenakshi (Indrani Mukherjee) lives in a small kingdom in a poorly defined historical period.  One day while out hunting she kills a tiger, only to be attacked by ruffians who are secretly employed by her evil brother Satpal (Jeevan); Satpal was warned by a prophecy that he will be killed by his oldest nephew, and figures that the easiest way to avoid it is to kill his sister before she can have any children.  However, she's saved by Jwala Singh (Pran), a humble woodsman who happens to be an expert fighter and "master of Samurai," according to the subtitles, who roams the land with his twin katanas and a well trained falcon named Sheroo (played by Sheroo the Wonder Bird, and sometimes a puppet.). Jwala takes the princess back to his cabin to recover, and she promises him anything to repay him for saving her life.  And that's when Jwala tells her the truth: he's loved her from afar for a long time,and the only thing he wants is her hand in marriage. She can marry him on the spot,or return to the palace knowing that she's broken her vow. 

She marries him on the spot. They spend the night together, but they are interrupted by a prowling tiger which Jwala announces is trying to avenge its mate.  He goes out tiger hunting, katana in hand, and discovers a man who had been tiger-killed,so he drapes his shirt over the man and drops his katana, only to be attacked by the tiger and falls with it into the river and an uncertain fate. Meenakshi discovers the body shrouded in her new husband's shirt, and because this is the Kingdom of People Who Jump to Conclusions, she stumbles home in a catatonic daze and is married to the only king who is willing to take her in this condition.  By the time she emerges from her fugue, she's married.  She explains that she was already married,and her new husband turns out to be really understanding; he promises to treat her as a queen in public and as a widow in private, and when he learns that she's pregnant he promises to raise her son as his heir.

He may be a little too understanding, though. Satpal was exiled because of the whole "plotting to murder his sister" thing, but when he turns up at her door apparently repentant, he's welcomed and charged with protecting his sister when her husband goes off to war. Meenakshi and Satpal's wife give birth on the same night, and Satpal sneaks off with his nephew and throws him from the wall of the castle, only to see Sheroo the falcon swoop down and carry the baby away.  When it turns out that Meenakshi had twins, Satpal switches his son with his younger nephew so that his son will be the heir, but when everyone is asleep his wife swaps the babies back without telling him.

Sheroo carries the baby to his master,who was in a coma for the last nine months and being tended to by a kindly blacksmith (Hercules) and his wife.  Jwala wakes up and discovers that Meenakshi left after the tiger attack,and because this is The Kingdom of People Who Jump to Conclusions, he wanders off to mope for the next twenty years.

The Blacksmith names the baby Dharam , and raises him until he grows up enough to be played by Dharmendra.  Dharam is a natural hero, strong and virtuous, and he's best friends with Prince Veer (Jeetendra), who is secretly Prince Veer.  Everyone dotes on him, especially his uncle Satpal. Veer and Dharam sing a song about how their friendship is one of the wonders of the world and can never be broken as they wander the land being generally heroic.

While wandering the land being generally heroic, Dharam and Veer stumble into a large arena where the evil Princess Pallavi (Zeenat Aman) hosts jousting competitions. naturally  Dharam decides to joust, and naturally he's brilliant at it, but it's really an excuse to get close to Pallavi. He wins and she promises him anything he wants.  He asks for her hand, and she orders her men to kill him. 

Dharam and Veer escape the assorted guards and gladiators trying to kill them, but Dharam goes back so that he can hit on Pallavi while she tortures him.  Meanwhile Veer takes refuge with a band of Banjara, and plots a rescue with the help of the dancer Roopa (Neetu Singh).  After the escape Dharam goes back again, this time kidnapping Pallavi and winning her heart through his inherent manliness. It's a sequence that has not aged at all well and drags on a bit too long, but eventually it ends and Pallavi loves Dharam, Roopa loves Veer, and Dharam is learning the art of Samurai from Jwala, who is still alive and has become an embittered hermit with two katanas and a trained falcon named Sheroo.  (Sheroo is remarkably spry for a bird of his age.)

Everybody is happy, but there is a closet full of shoes that are waiting to drop. When Satpal finds out that Veer isn't his son after all, he gathers an Injustice League made up of all the enemies Dharam and Veer have made in the movie so far: his actual son, Pallavi's brother, Pallavi's fiance, and Roopa's fiance, who was also the leader of the Banjara band until Dharam overthrew him. The first order of business is to drive a wedge between Dharam and Veer, and that turns out to be surprisingly easy when you live in the Kingdom of People Who Jump to Conclusions and you're not worried about massive collateral damage.

Dharam and Veer are manipulated into a duel, secrets are revealed, and all the characters get on ships because now it's a swashbuckling pirate movie.  It's exciting but confusing,which kind of sums up the movie as a whole. The good news is that Pallavi and Roopa get to join in on the swashbuckling fun.