NEW DELHI: Imtiaz Ali knew, each time he picked up a newspaper, that he wanted to connect stories of displacement and destruction to his film Main Vaapas Aaunga.
He eventually shaped that vision into a film that spans past and present, and moves from the subcontinent to the wider world.
“I kept reading that there is destruction, there is battle, and more and more people are being abandoned, becoming refugees and reaching the verge of existence,” Ali told PTI in an interview.
“I couldn’t help but think that this is exactly what happened during Partition.”
The director, who turned 55 on Tuesday, said one of his greatest birthday gifts was the response to the film, which stars Naseeruddin Shah, Diljit Dosanjh, Vedang Raina and Sharvari. He described audiences—particularly younger viewers—watching the film in near silence and empathising with its story of a 95-year-old man recalling the love he left behind across the border.
The film is told through the memories of an elderly man (Shah), shared with his grandson (Dosanjh), who pieces together a story of Partition trauma and a love that endures across decades.
As the credits roll, news footage of wars, bombings and global displacement is shown, alongside images of children smiling through hardship. These visuals are set to the song Kya Kamaal Hai, voiced by Dosanjh and composed by A R Rahman.
An anonymous refugee quote also appears: “If I had a choice between death and leaving my home, I would have gladly chosen death. Unfortunately, I did not have such a choice.”
“I felt we should do this in the end, and include real footage of people experiencing the same severities of being partitioned from their homes, as we were in 1947,” Ali said.
The director, known for films such as Jab We Met, Rockstar, Love Aaj Kal and Amar Singh Chamkila, has been visiting theatres to gauge audience reactions.
“It has been a gratifying experience. There is a feeling that what I wanted to say has been communicated. I have never seen an audience watching a film so quietly,” he said.
“In all my successful films, people tend to fidget. This time, they are really paying attention. Younger audiences are coming in large numbers and responding very positively.”
Ali said he was particularly pleased that the film’s themes of intimacy and affection had resonated with younger viewers.
“I have said many times that the present generation feels a little lost because they do not find sustaining love—something they can hold in their hearts, that old-fashioned love, like old music. That longing, that yearning, that holding one person and being with them—they are relating to that,” he said.
The film, he added, explores intergenerational connections needed to make sense of the present.
“The situation 78 years ago was different, and people had to be a certain way to survive. Now Nirvair (Dosanjh) has the mental space to reconnect, and he should, otherwise he will never feel whole or settled.”
Discussing the film’s final sequence, Ali credited Dosanjh and lyricist Irshad Kamil for its development.
“A lot of people have said the film is on one side and the music video on the other. I must acknowledge Irshad Kamil, who said, ‘Sir, you have made this film, but there is something you can do that goes beyond it,’” he said.
“Diljit Dosanjh said, ‘Sir, from here, a very different connection will open. You have to make this song.’”
He added that there was no budget for the sequence, so funds were taken from the publicity budget. “But I wanted to do it, and Diljit wanted to do it. We shot it quickly,” he said.
Ali said cinema remains permanent and serves as a record of human experience.
He added that he deliberately avoided over-emphasising the emotional moments in the film.
“Whenever there was something emotional in the script or during the shoot, I did not linger on it. I did not over-explain it or over-emphasise it. I let it flow while moving on to the next scene,” he said.
In the film, the old man refers to rioters and Hitler as figures who came from Mars. Ali said this was intentional to avoid linking violence to any specific religion, human group or even animals.
“They have to come from another planet to create that kind of violence,” he said.
Through the story of Partition, Ali said he hopes audiences connect with a sense of shared humanity.
“History is not just an episode of the past. Memory is a river that flows both ways. I want to quote Michael Jackson: ‘I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways.’”
“The mistake we make is thinking we are powerless. We are not. It can happen only because people want it. No one will come from outside to do it for you.”
