| Director | Saim Sadiq |
|---|---|
| Box office | $1.2 million |
In inner-city Lahore, Amanullah is the elder patriarch of the middle-class Rana family. His younger son, Haider, has spent years unemployed, while Haider's wife, Mumtaz, works as an aesthetician at a salon, a job she values highly. Haider's friend Qaiser helps him secure a job at an erotic dance theatre, where he is to perform as a backup dancer for Biba, a hijra dancer. Haider had previously seen a bloodied Biba at a hospital when his sister-in-law, Nucchi, was giving birth to a fourth daughter. Upon learning that Haider has found work, Amanullah—who wishes for a grandson—orders Mumtaz to quit her job, much to her chagrin.
Haider joins his fellow backup dancers for rehearsals with Biba, but demonstrates little experience in dancing. After the rehearsal, he accompanies Biba to the theatre, where he witnesses an argument between her and the theatre manager over the affordability of a standee of Biba. Biba and Haider place an order for the standee at a shop. At the Rana household, Mumtaz and Nucchi install an air cooler. That night, while Biba attends an event at which she is groped by a man, Haider goes to collect the standee. Unable to store it at the theatre, he brings it home, and he and Mumtaz place it on the roof.
The next morning, Fayyaz, a widow and family friend, notices the standee on the roof and alerts Amanullah. Fayyaz and Amanullah chide Haider, deeming the standee shameful. At another rehearsal, Haider begins to show improvement in his dancing. That night, Biba and Haider go to her home, where she explains her bloodied appearance at the hospital—the blood belonged to another hijra, Tina, who was shot and killed by a man in front of Biba. Haider and Biba talk about the ocean, and he says that he has never been outside Lahore. They nearly kiss, but Haider returns home. In bed with Mumtaz, he asks her about the ocean, and she suggests they visit it someday. Haider says he cannot sleep; he returns to Biba, and the two passionately kiss.
On another night, Mumtaz and Nucchi go to an amusement park called Joyland, while Haider and the other backup dancers prepare to perform alongside Biba. When the electricity at the theatre unexpectedly shuts off, Haider convinces Biba and the others to continue their performance until the lights come back on; their routine proves a success with the audience. Later that night, Nucchi's husband, Saleem, catches Mumtaz masturbating to another man, who is himself masturbating in an alley visible from her bathroom window. The next morning, Fayyaz's son scolds the Rana family, as Fayyaz spent the previous night in Amanullah's company, a fact her son considers disgraceful.
Mumtaz and Nucchi visit a doctor and learn that Mumtaz is pregnant with a boy. Mumtaz tells Nucchi that she feels like "running away", but dismisses her own statement as a joke. At the theatre, Qaiser and the other backup dancers ask Haider probing questions about Biba's genitals, resulting in Biba angrily rebuking them. Later, Biba and Haider prepare to have sex, but when Haider tries to position himself as a receptive partner, Biba furiously kicks him out and tells him not to return to her or the theatre. Haider returns home and cries when Mumtaz tells him that they are expecting a son.
After a party for Amanullah's 70th birthday, Mumtaz retrieves a hidden bottle from the tank of a bathroom toilet and drinks from it. She is later found dead. Family, neighbours and others—including Biba—gather and pray as her body is washed, shrouded, and taken away for burial. After the funeral, Haider becomes angry at Saleem when he maligns Mumtaz for killing her unborn son. Nucchi chastises Saleem and says that Mumtaz's death is the fault of the entire family. In the past, an as-yet-unmarried Haider visits Mumtaz at her home and asks her, in spite of their marriage being arranged, whether she herself wants to marry him; they mutually agree to do so, with her only condition being to be allowed to work after marriage. In the present, Haider leaves Lahore to visit the ocean and wades out into the water...