The film centers around Nogen and Bhoben, key smiths who works in opening locks and safes for people who have misplaced their keys. They travel from their village of Palashpur to the metropolis to find clients for their work.
Bhoben happens to be a dreamer and exists in a fantastical dimension where everything is perfect. He equates the keys that he works on with human emotions and the archetypes that rule our psyche. To him the city is a wondrous place where reality is warped and the people caught up in illusions that distort their psyche. He yearns for his lost love Fatima who was married of to someone and resides somewhere in the sprawling city. He keeps searching for her residence and asking around for news of her from those he meets in the course of his work.
Nogen on the other hand is a practical person who is assaulted by his wife and son’s suffering. Most days he is unable to bring them two square meals a day and he searches for ways to earn more money so that his family can live better. He scorns Bhoben since he spends his time looking for a woman who happens to be
not only of a different religion but is also married to someone else.
Fatima’s struggle features as a separate storyline in the film which joins the main storyline near the end. Her husband Ashraf is in police custody for raping a woman named Nafisa. Fatima feels disgusted at her husband and feels sympathy for Nafisa. She lives from meal to meal but still employs an advocate for her husband’s defense in court and does everything she can to save him form a prison sentence.
As Nogen and Bhoben roam around the metropolis in search of work, they encounter clients who are strange and interesting in their own, unique ways. The stories of these people flow into their own so that Bhoben and Nogen’s path takes them across a startling range of situations.
