For me, ‘Main Vaapas Aunga’ is yet another Imtiaz Ali film that mistakes emotional ambition for emotional impact. It's a film with interesting ideas, beautiful visuals and some pleasant music, but at its heart, it never makes you feel what it desperately wants you to feel.

The biggest problem begins with the central love story. Sharvari (Jiya) and Vedang Raina (Keenu) play pre-Partition lovers, but the pairing never quite works. Despite being shown as contemporaries (from the same class), Sharvari visibly looks much older than Vedang, making it difficult to buy into their romance. More importantly, the chemistry is almost non-existent. Their relationship never develops the intensity or longing that the film constantly insists is there. Much of it plays out like a badly acted school play, where emotions are spoken more than they are felt. Even the songs, which sound perfectly fine when heard independently, fail to deepen the romance on screen.

And that's a fatal flaw because the entire film rests on that love story. If you don't believe in those two lovers, then Devang's character’s search for closure decades later—now played by Naseeruddin Shah — has almost no emotional payoff.

Speaking of Naseeruddin Shah, I know many have praised his performance, but I found it surprisingly theatrical. Instead of disappearing into the character, he often seems to be performing in isolated "acting moments," resulting in a series of hammy sequences.

Daljit Dosanjh doesn't help matters either. As a third-generation heir from a wealthy business family, his character itself feels oddly conceived. He struggles to speak proper English in London, while his grandfather casually shifts between fluent English, discussions about Martians and world affairs. The inconsistency becomes unintentionally distracting. Worse, Daljit spends much of the film looking expressionless, as though he's still trying to figure out what film he's in.

The screenplay is equally unfocused. Every time the narrative begins moving towards its emotional core, it suddenly wanders off into another tangent. There's an abrupt ‘Rang De Basanti’ - style debate about leaving India which leads Daljit’s character to start researching some stuff to improve the soil condition or something (reminding us of ‘Swades’). Then there's an unnecessarily graphic sequence showing girls being murdered by their own families to save them from rioters. While these horrors certainly happened during Partition, the way they're inserted here feels more shocking than meaningful, pulling the audience away from the central emotional journey rather than enriching it.

Then there are the Martian, Russian and German subplots. They're occasionally entertaining and quirky, but what do they ultimately add to the story? Very little. The same goes for the film's closing montage on global conflicts and humanity's larger problems. One can't help but ask: wasn't this supposed to be a love story?

There are also glaring gaps in the writing. Naseer's character has an entire family, yet we never really know who his wife was, how they met, or what role she played in his life. She's simply absent from the emotional architecture of the film, making the decades between young Keenu and old Keenu feel strangely hollow.

But perhaps my biggest reservation lies elsewhere. ‘Main Vapas Aunga’ is about the trauma of Partition, yet it rarely feels like it comes from someone who has truly understood that trauma in all its complexity. The pain often feels researched rather than lived. Coincidentally, I had recently revisited Earth, based on Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, and Pinjar, adapted from Amrita Pritam's work. Both authors had experienced Partition first-hand, and that authenticity seeps into those movies. Their grief is intimate, layered and devastating. In comparison, ‘Main Vaapas Aunga’ often feels sketchy, as though it's recreating history instead of remembering it.

This has always been my issue with Imtiaz Ali as a filmmaker. He repeatedly returns to the same themes of love, longing, identity, journeys - but often strays away from the core plot or its emotional depth. The one exception, for me, was ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’. That film worked because it had an extraordinary real-life story doing much of the heavy lifting. Here, with an original narrative that demands emotional conviction, the weaknesses in the writing become impossible to ignore.

In the end, ‘Main Vaapas Aunga’ is a film full of ideas, detours and conversations, but remarkably short on feeling. And for a love story set against one of history's greatest human tragedies, that's perhaps the biggest disappointment of all.

Conclusion: Imtiaz Ali Once Again Confuses Wandering for Depth

Released on: 12^th June 2026

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Diljit Dosanjh, Vadang Raina, Sharvari Wagh, Rajat Kapoor, Vinod Nagpal, Manish Chaudhuri

Runtime: 166 minutes

Rating: ***

By Meraj Hasan

Meraj Hasan ‘meem’ is a Dubai based business and marketing consultant, poet and a music journalist. He also has a wide range of vinyl in his collection ranging from jazz, blues, classical, rock, pop and old Hindi film albums. Meraj's first book of poems, ‘Khyaalon Ki Tapri’ was an instant bestseller and he has just released his second book of poems, 'Boondon Si Baatein'.