Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aunga is a poignant love story set against the backdrop of Partition and migration. Starring Naseeruddin Shah, Diljit Dosanjh, Sharvari and Vedang Raina, the film explores themes of love, longing, memory and displacement. It tells the story of a man who carries a promise and the weight of his memories across decades, while grappling with the pain of never truly belonging to the place he calls home in the aftermath of Partition.
Filmfare Editor-in-Chief Jitesh Pillaai shared his thoughts on Main Vaapas Aunga:
What do you do when you struggle to like a film? You love the filmmaker so much that you want him to succeed at all costs. Which is why, with a spring in my heart, I headed for a screening of Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga. What’s not to like about a film that toplines Naseeruddin Shah and Diljit Dosanjh?
Shah is extraordinary in his portrayal of an aging patriarch who longs to go back to Sargodha where he spent his youth and left his love behind due to Partition. Then there’s his grandson played by Diljit, who besides being a failed stand-up comic, also quits his job.
He has a girlfriend waiting in London (Banita Sandhu, unbelievably mediocre). Dosanjh is first-rate and you can see he’s pumping life into the proceedings.
Vedang Raina is sincere and plays the young Shah with a lot of feeling. But he has a long way to go. He does a couple of sequences, including the final train-to-India sequence, rather well. Sharvari looks dewy fresh and the joys of youth are a sight to behold. Will be interesting to see how she performs as an actor in her future films.
Partition is a very serious subject. Trying to incorporate a love story into such a raw historical wound may or may not be an ideal scenario. If you see how Deepa Mehra’s Earth, Pamela Rooks’ train to Pakistan based on Khushwant Singh’s celebrated novel, or even Govind Nihalani’s excellent Tamas approached the subject, you feel enough research hasn’t been done here.
Ali is a sensitive and nuanced filmmaker and while he succeeds in investing you in the somewhat gauche love story, the Partition portions don’t quite ring true. Main Vaapas Aaunga takes too long to establish the premise and the last twenty minutes are perhaps the strongest parts of the film.
But the very stodgy script, trying to draw parallels between present day and the past, don’t really come together. AR Rahman’s music too doesn’t match up to the work he’s done before in Ali’s films like Tamasha, Highway or Rockstar. Main Vaapas Aaunga is clunky for its own good; too many ideas crisscross and too much is being packed in.
A film is a winner when you feel empathy for the characters. Occasionally, you do. But most of the time the proceedings move at a glacial pace, which can be exhausting. Partition is a raw wound, some of which still hasn’t healed. Even the Diljit video at the end of the film, which is almost like an anti-war appeal and makes a case for destitute children and war refugees, doesn’t quite make the cut and seems performative.
Main Vaapas Aaunga left me with mixed feelings. There is a lot to like and yet so much could have been done with the material available. We got a mockumentary of sorts interspersed with some nice videos. Ali deserved better as did we.
Also Read: Main Vaapas Aaunga Review: A Soulful But Meandering Ode to Love Across a Lifetime
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