Main Vaapas Aaunga transcends its flaws to deliver a profoundly moving plea for humanity, anchored by heartbreakingly brilliant performances, observes Sreeju Sudhakaran.
Key Points
- Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga explores the tragedy of Partition through a poignant story of love and loss, advocating for humanity over division.
- Vedang Raina and Naseeruddin Shah deliver exceptional performances as the young and old Keenu, respectively, capturing the character’s innocence and later trauma.
- A R Rahman’s music and background score are used effectively to enhance the film’s emotional impact, particularly in poignant moments.
- While the screenplay offers few surprises, the film’s power lies in its emotional resolution and its overarching message of mercy.
Bollywood in recent years has shown us that there are two major approaches to portraying the tragedy of Partition.
One is to exploit the residual anger within people and use history as fodder for religious division in the name of ‘justice’. I won’t name the movie that most recently did so, but it has the name of a state in it.
The second (and the more noble approach) is to show the pain and anguish of the survivors and their descendants, with the hope that such a man-made tragedy of this magnitude is never repeated again.
Imtiaz Ali, to no one’s surprise, takes the latter route with his new film, Main Vaapas Aaunga, a poignant tale of love and loss that ultimately becomes a plea for humanity.
Main Vaapas Aaunga is also possibly the only response he can offer as a filmmaker to the reign of Dhurandhar in the ongoing era of cinema.
What’s Main Vaapas Aaunga About?
Nirvair is a software engineer in the UK who has just quit his job. He aspires to be a stand-up comedian, but frankly, he isn’t very good at it.
He receives a call from home informing him that his grandfather (Naseeruddin Shah) has suffered a stroke and may not have much time left. Nirvair returns to India and discovers that his grandfather is still holding on to life, but is suffering from dementia. He no longer recognises anyone and rambles about the moon, Martians, cricket matches and a dozen other things.
Yet beneath the gibberish, Nirvair begins to realise that his grandfather has travelled back to his youth, to his ancestral home in pre-Partition Punjab when he was simply Keenu (Vedang Raina), a Sikh boy in love with Afsana (Sharvari), his Muslim classmate.
But what is it about the past that is making the old man cling so desperately to life? That is the mystery Nirvair must solve.
Crafting Intimacy Amidst Chaos
Like Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis, I am certain Imtiaz Ali’s new film is destined to melt many hearts, especially those that still value humanity over enmity.
At my screening, there were plenty of teary-eyed faces and even a strong applause towards the end. I am not ashamed to admit that a particular performance near the climax moved me to tears. In fact, I can confidently say that even if you remain uncertain about the film until then, that one scene will reach somewhere deep inside you.
And it isn’t just that scene that reminds us why Imtiaz Ali is so skilled at crafting affecting human dramas. His gift lies in creating moments of intimacy, like those stolen minutes that Keenu gets to spend with Afsana.
Theirs is a rushed love story, not because the film doesn’t devote enough time to it, but because, as Afsana tells Keenu, she thought she had a year to respond to his feelings. Time, however, is running out, with communal tensions steadily escalating around them.
They are still naïve. Still hopeful. Hence the promises of togetherness. And in the worst-case scenario they can imagine, which is merely a brief separation, there is always the belief that they will find their way back to each other.
Vedang Raina is wonderful in bringing out Keenu’s starry-eyed innocence, which only makes his journey more heartbreaking because, unlike him, we know what lies ahead.
That innocence creates a painful contrast when we later glimpse an older, more hardened Keenu, not yet the grandfather we know, but a man shaped by everything he has witnessed and endured. Once again, Vedang shines in these scenes. I particularly loved the hesitation he brings to a moment where he is finally about to meet someone he has spent years trying to find.
Sharvari acts as a charming beacon of radiance in every scene she graces. She lights up every scene she appears in, whether she is teasing Keenu flirtatiously or bringing emotional longing to their later interactions.
The Echoes of Trauma and Unfinished Business
The romantic in me did wish the film had spent a little more time with them before their world came crashing down. However, Imtiaz Ali opts for a non-linear structure, and Main Vaapas Aaunga frequently shifts back to the present-day narrative.
What works better in these contemporary portions is discovering the kind of man Keenu eventually became after his traumatic migration to India.
His son, played with gruff excellence by Rajat Kapoor, complains that his father was never affectionate and cared only about earning money. Later, his grandson echoes the same sentiment, wondering how he became so ‘heartless’. Another character who knows Keenu’s story quietly replies that he left his heart behind in his homeland. A simple but deeply touching moment that shows Imtiaz just knows where to drop the right line.
Main Vaapas Aaunga boasts two terrific performances from opposite ends of the age spectrum. Vedang Raina is exceptional as the young Keenu, while Naseeruddin Shah brings heartbreaking intensity to an old man desperately trying to fulfil an unfinished task from his past. His final scene is likely to leave many viewers emotionally shattered.
Imtiaz Ali also remains one of the few filmmakers who truly understands how to use A R Rahman.
I wouldn’t rank this soundtrack among the composer’s very best or even his best collaboration with the director, but the music lands where it needs to.
With Ishq Mastana, Rahman joyfully plays with tempo while Imtiaz captures the changing moods within Keenu’s town.
The more poignant songs in the third act work even better, arriving during some of the film’s most emotionally charged moments.
It is also refreshing to see Rahman’s background score used with restraint. Unlike his last effort in Peddi, where almost every scene seemed flooded with music, Imtiaz allows silence to linger in crucial scenes before deploying the score like an emotional punchline.
A Tale That Feels Too Familiar
Is Main Vaapas Aaunga a completely satisfying Imtiaz Ali film?
In all honesty, not quite.
The screenplay by Imtiaz Ali and Nayanika Mahtani offers very few surprises. Since we already know much of what Keenu has endured through the flashbacks, Nirvair’s efforts to uncover the truth never become particularly engaging until the climax.
I hope this doesn’t sound insensitive, but from a plot perspective, Main Vaapas Aaunga doesn’t bring much that feels new. More importantly, it is fairly easy to predict where the story is heading. We have seen stronger Partition dramas that more comprehensively captured the pain and suffering of migrants on both sides of the border, the most recent example being Nikkhil Advani’s excellent Freedom At Midnight.
As a result, while the film gradually reveals Keenu’s trauma, we can often anticipate what happened to him and his family before the narrative confirms it.
Imtiaz doesn’t dwell excessively on the violence, but when he does, the impact is brutal and deeply unsettling.
Interestingly, the leader of the radical Muslim group is played by Danish Pandor, whose characters seems destined to keep ending up on the other side of the border. Yet the tone and messaging here could not be more different from his previous notable outing.
Returning to the screenplay, it is also fairly obvious what unfinished business Keenu has left behind in his homeland. Perhaps that is entirely intentional, because the moment that thread finally resolves is precisely what gives the film its emotional power.
Diljit’s Track Doesn’t Engage Entirely
While Nirvair’s scenes with his grandfather work because they help us understand the old man better, much of his own subplot feels shaky, despite Diljit’s inherently likeable presence.
His attempt to become a better boyfriend to his NRI girlfriend (Banita Sandhu) after learning more about his grandfather’s past feels cheesier than necessary. One phone conversation between them becomes unintentionally amusing when they start comparing their relationship to Keenu and Afsana’s.
His journey of learning about Partition frequently feels like a convenient device for exposition, and the way he later turns the migration crisis into material for his stand-up routines doesn’t quite land either.
Nirvair is also handed a mini-Swades-style mission of contributing something meaningful to the country around him, only for that plotline to be abandoned immediately.
Still, while Nirvair may not get many standout moments of his own, Diljit certainly gets one during the end credits, aided beautifully by A R Rahman.
Kya Kamaal Hai encapsulates exactly why Imtiaz Ali made this film. It is his mercy letter to a burning world that continues to look away while millions are killed, displaced or rendered homeless across the globe.
And for that sentiment alone, Imtiaz sir, you have my respect.
