Nawazuddin Siddiqui is literally sitting on a dusty pavement in maximum city staring blankly at a Polaroid camera while sweating through his faded plaid shirt because some tourists won't pay him properly for a snapshot by the Gateway of India.

Honestly, let's back up a bit because Ritesh Batra directs this quiet little gem called Photograph and it's nothing like those loud, flashy bollywood movies with fifty backup dancers jumping out of helicopters and exploding cars.

Rafii is just a struggling street photographer in Mumbai who takes pictures of tourists to send money back to his nagging grandmother in his village who won't stop bugging him about getting married already.

He's dead broke.

And then boom, Sanya Malhotra shows up on his patch as Miloni, a quiet commerce student who looks like she's carrying the weight of her entire high-achieving family's expectations on her shoulders while walking home from her prep classes.

He clicks her picture.

She doesn't even smile, just stands there looking profoundly sad and lost in thought, which somehow fascinates him so much that he keeps the photo instead of throwing it away.

Grandma is still calling him constantly asking about a bride, so Rafii pulls out Miloni's photo, mails it to his aging relative, and tells her this is the girl he's gonna marry, thinking she'll finally shut up about the wedding planning.

Grandma gets super excited, packs her bags, and shows up in Mumbai expecting to meet her future granddaughter-in-law, which instantly causes a massive panic attack for poor Rafii.

He has to track down Miloni and beg her to play along for just a little bit, which is wild because she actually agrees to it and sneaks away from her rich, controlling family to pretend to be a poor village boy's fiancée.

They wander around the chaotic streets together, sharing cups of milky cutting chai, sitting on old buses, and awkwardly eating street food while barely saying anything to each other because they are both painfully introverted.

There is this one background extra carrying a hilariously oversized basket of bananas on his head for three whole minutes during a street scene, and I honestly couldn't stop staring at it while Nawazuddin awkwardly talked about his debts.

Right around the interval point, which totally creeps up on you because hindi films usually love a loud dramatic explosion here, they just quietly eat dinner together at a rundown diner and talk about how they both feel trapped by their families.

Stuff happens, Miloni's parents catch wind that she's hanging out with a Muslim street photographer instead of studying for her chartered accountant exams, and they lock her down tighter than a high-security prison.

Grandma figures out the whole scam too, but she's strangely chill about it because she actually likes Miloni's picture and realizes Rafii is just a lonely guy trying to survive the daily grind of the city.

Miloni's family tries to force her into an arranged match with some wealthy suit-wearing corporate guy who talks way too much about stocks and bonds over boring dinners.

She looks miserable.

Rafii packs up his old camera gear, pays off a chunk of his ancestral debt, and moves out of his tiny shared room to figure out his next move in the endless concrete maze of the city.

Miloni eventually breaks off her forced engagement, walks out of her house, and goes back to the exact street corner where they first met.

She finds Rafii sitting in his usual spot by the pavement.

He looks up, hands her the camera, and they quietly walk off together down the crowded sidewalk.