An elderly Partition survivor once shared with filmmaker Imtiaz Ali his memory of a girl who frequented his father’s shop and how much he admired her. After almost seven decades, he still remembers her fondly. Another Partition survivor, recalls the writer-filmmaker, once wrote about a man who used to cross their street at a certain time and how she would wait on her balcony to catch a glimpse of him. “There is something precious in the feelings of love that you carry in your heart all your life. This kind of warmth and memory is your constant companion that gives you refuge, shelter and joy all your life,” says Ali. His new film, Main Vaapas Aaunga, he adds, is based on such stories.
It was during his visits to Punjab while filming Amar Singh Chamkila (2024) and other films before it, that Ali had met several survivors of the Partition who, even after 78 years, held on to memories of their life before the divide. In spite of the tragedy and the strife, it was the pleasant memories of that period that they still recalled — their friends, old homes, pieces of furniture, playthings and the people they had loved. “Sometimes the elderly struggled with memory issues, they forgot the names of their own children but they didn’t forget the infatuations from their early days,” he says.
Love has been a leitmotif in all of Ali’s films, from his debut feature Socha Na Tha (2005) to Jab We Met (2007). Love Aaj Kal (2009) and Tamasha (2015). It has contributed in cementing his reputation as a storyteller who presents a fascinating look at contemporary romance as well as its inherent conflicts. Yet, he often packs in something more than just romance — the journey of self-discovery that the lead characters go through in (Jab We Met) or love beyond social constructs (Rockstar, 2011).
Still from Jab We Met
“Through Main Vaapas Aaunga, I wanted to convey the feelings of the generation that is passing away. In fact, I was in a rush to make this film so that some of them could watch it, so that we can communicate to them that we feel you and we are trying to understand what it would have been for you to have lived this whole life carrying the tenderness of your early romances,” says Ali who grew up in Patna and Jamshedpur before moving to Delhi to study at Hindu College.
Main Vaapas Aaunga, that hits theatres on June 12, reunites Ali with singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh after the much-acclaimed Amar Singh Chamkila and marks the director’s first collaboration with actor Naseeruddin Shah. After essaying the character of controversial Punjabi folk singer Chamkila on screen, Dosanjh now plays Nirvair, grandson of Shah’s character, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and wishes to visit his hometown across the border. “It’s a fascinating experience to work with the same actor in such different roles. Every time I look at the edit and watch Diljit’s performance, I realise what a pure actor he is,” says Ali. For him, bringing together Shah and Dosanjh was a major experiment. “While Naseer is one of the most trained and accomplished actors of India, Diljit is one of the most instinctive actors. Their scenes, perhaps the highlights of the movie, worked because both of them have respect for each other. Naseer had liked Chamkila’s biopic, which is why he was keen to work with Diljit and me,” says Ali.
Shah plays a dementia patient in the play, The Father (written by French playwright Florian Zeller), but Ali says after casting him, he consciously avoided seeing it because he did not want it to influence his directorial process.
The fresh pairing of actors Vedang Raina and Sharvari has already created a buzz. Since Shah’s character of a Partition survivor is 95 in the movie, he would be around 18 at the time of Partition. When the film time travels to that period, Raina plays Shah’s younger self and Sharvari appears as his love interest Jiya. “What I really admired about Vedang is that he does not pretend-act. He is always real for the moment. Shravari has natural spunk and grace which were crucial for the character of Jiya.” Raina, who debuted in Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies (2023), was cast alongside Alia Bhatt in Jigra (2024) while Sharvari after making her acting debut in Bunty Aur Babli 2 (2021) has acted in Munjya (2024).
Still from Main Vaapas Aaunga
Ali encouraged both the actors to feel, discover moments organically, rather than go by what was written. Sharvari recalls, “He taught me to trust emotional truth and surrender fully to the character’s inner world. With my character in Main Vaapas Aaunga, what I found beautiful was that even though she belongs to another era, her emotions feel incredibly contemporary and relatable. Imtiaz sir never approached her as just a period character. For him, she was a person first, with desires, fears, tenderness and strength.”
Raina, who has always found Ali’s movies to be personal and emotionally honest, shares that the director never forces a performance. “He observes people and silences so beautifully that sometimes the most important direction from him would come in just one simple sentence. He asked me not to ‘play the period’ but to play the person. He said emotions never change with time and that love, longing, rebellion and heartbreak all remain the same. It’s just the world around the character that changes. That really helped me simplify my approach,” shares Raina.
During his career spanning two decades, Ali has built a cinematic repertoire that is known as much for their emotional richness as for exquisite music. He has once again teamed up with lyricist Irshad Kamil and composer AR Rahman for his latest. “Irshad and I go a long way and we have betakallufi (informality) with each other. He does not mind saying something to me, which he knows I won’t like and vice versa. Because I am so informal with him, I keep telling him ‘Achha hai Irshad but it’s not of Sahir Ludhianvi level (It’s good but doesn’t match the level of Sahir Ludhianvi)’ or, ‘Achaa hai but Ghalib likhte kya isko (It’s good but would Ghalib have written this)’. I say this just to harass him and egg him on.”
Usually, Ali has conversations about a proposed film separately with Rahman and Irshad during the initial days of its production. “We approach music through different ways. It’s only after talking to both of them separately for a while that the three of us sit and start working together. With Rahman, the best thing is there is no procedure. It can start anywhere and can go anywhere,” says the director.
Though Sriram Raghvan’s Ikkis, another cross-border tale told across a dual timeline that released in January, was not a commercial success, Ali believes statistics can’t predict a film’s fate at the box-office. “People during the late 80s believed that action was working and love stories were not. Then released Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), and everybody and their uncles watched it 20 times. Rules are made for the convenience of some people who try to find some calculation retrospectively on the success and failures of films. The success or failure of one particular film is not a checkbox or a refusal to its whole category of films,” says Ali. “Filmmaking is not a product of marketing. Filmmaking is a product of art.”
Imtiaz Ali 
Still from Jab We Met
Still from Main Vaapas Aaunga
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