Main Vaapas Aaunga review: Imtiaz Ali crafts a hauntingly beautiful tale of partition trauma, love, and longing

No one depicts love and longing as beautifully as Imtiaz Ali does. His coming-of-age dramas like Rockstar, Cocktail, Jab We Met, and even Jab Harry Met Sejal have had these two as central themes in the plot. In Amar Singh Chamkeela, Ali’s most political film to date, love made the two lead characters brave even as they longed to belong. His latest, Main Vapas Aaunga, is based on a similar theme, but Ali goes a step forward and talks of man-made borders, refugee crisis world over and how no particular community should be held responsible for the trauma that came with the partition of India in 1947. Featuring a stellar cast comprising Naseeruddin Shah, Diljit Dosanjh, Vedang Raina, Rajat Kapoor, and Sharvari, Main Vaapas Aaunga speaks the language of love in a polarised world.

Main Vaapas Aaunga marks Dosanjh’s second collaboration with Imtiaz Ali, and while the actor is effortlessly charming as Nirvair Grewal, a man who has commitment phobia but is a sensitive man deeply connected to his grandfather, Main Vaapas Aaunga belongs to the veteran Naseeruddin Shah, who is stunning in the film as the ailing man yearning to go back to the land that he called his home, at the fag end of his life.

What’s the story of Main Vapas Aaunga

Shah plays 95-year-old Ishar Singh Grewal, who is desperate to go to Sargodha. His age and health have made him delirious and he has forgotten that now Sargodha, where he grew up, and Chandigarh, where he now lives with his family, are separated by international borders. As he slips in and out of consciousness and is restricted to a hospital bed, he keeps wanting to go to Sargodha to meet someone. He is incoherent, and only his UK-returned grandson, Dosanjh, can understand his language.

What many deem as gibberish turns out to be a story from the past involving the family’s migration to India, facing rioters on the way, losing their loved ones and leaving behind home and love. The narrative flip-flops from past and present and depicts an inter-religion love story featuring Vedang Raina (as the young Ishar) and Sharvari, a spirited young Afsana or Jiya, who are well aware of the growing tensions between the two communities but keep wanting to be together. Their story is juxtaposed with Niravir’s on-and-off relationship with his girlfriend (Banita Sandhu), a stark contrast from other love stories.

As Nirvair makes his way home, he realises he is unknown to a lot of family secrets and his father (Rajat Kapoor) is not willing to tell the full story. Kapoor’s character is shown to have a lot of resentment towards his own father (Shah), who has been a completely different man post partition, a phase that is not only mentioned but never shown on screen.

What works

The film is hauntingly beautiful. Written by Ali and Nayanika Mehtani, Main Vaapas Aaunga takes an interfaith love story to tell a story about belonging and about homecoming. It comes at a time when headlines all over are dominated by news of conflict and war. But the film, instead of pointing fingers at a community in particular, tries to look at the larger picture of loved lost, of passing on trauma through generations due to one tragic incident and blaming circumstances over the community.

The film’s cast is superb. Actors like Sanjay Suri, Dolly Ahluwalia, Vinod Nagpal, Mashhoor Amrohi and Manish Chaudhary play important characters which have limited screen time. You almost cannot recognise half of them, because they are there on screen but never in focus untill the climax. Dosanjh has always been easy on the eyes and likeable with his effortless charm and acting skills. It is always a treat to watch him on screen and this one is no different.

As Niravair, Dosanjh plays a sensitive man who can never settle and only finds answers when he starts digging deep into his grandfather’s history. Young on-screen pair Vedang Raina and Sharvari deliver to their part well. Sharvari, with her character, lights up the screen with grace and the right amount of naivety that her character requires. Raina, on the other hand, truly comes on his own. He shares screen space with some veteran faces but never slips and holds his own as the shy, loyal lover who is foolish to believe he will come back to take his love with him and in later years is riddled by guilt when he is unable to.

The star of the film, however, is Naseeruddin Shah, who is stunning as the ageing, delirious old man desperate to go back to Sargodha one last time. Shah balances his performance, as a man often speaking gibberish, but never overdoes it, making his performance truly stand out.

AR Rahman and Imtiaz Ali, along with Irshad Kamil, are known for creating splendid musicals in the past, and this one is no different.

What does not work

The film hints at subplots but never gets into the details, leaving them slightly unfinished. There is a portion where Dosnajh is shown to help build something that can help the farmers, giving a hat tip to the actor’s personal support to the farmers’ movement in the past, but there is only one scene that shows him working on a technology to support them, but it doesn't dig deeper. I wish they had explored Rajat Kapoor and Shah’s strained relationship a bit more or given a conclusion to Dosanjh and Banita Sandhu’s relationship. The film is also uneven, and drags especially when Ali goes too much into detail to describe Shah’s outlandish descriptions.

Final Verdict

Main Vaapas Aaunga, despite its slightly uneven narrative, delivers and tugs at one’s heartstrings. It makes you wonder if the trauma of partition would ever go away because the generation which faced it buried it in their conscience and lived silently with trauma. And then later passed it on to the next generation. The hatred towards a certain community stems from the same incident. And thus, it is rather bold for Imtiaz Ali to talk of peace, healing and love on both sides of the border in a year like 2026 when the biggest hit has been based on anti-Pakistan views.

Main Vaapas Aaunga makes you tear up and reflect. It makes you believe in forever love in the age of dating apps and quick swipes and makes you yearn to go home.