Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt has praised Imtiaz Ali’s latest film Main Vaapas Aaunga, saying its improving box office performance reflects audiences’ ability to recognise authentic storytelling.
The film, which was released in theatres on June 12, opened to modest collections of Rs 1.15 crore nett on its first day. However, it registered a jump in collections in the second week, and has continued to hold steady at the box office, driven largely by positive word of mouth.
“Films that arrive with drums and trumpets, announcing themselves like conquerors,” Bhatt wrote for Variety India, adding that there are films that arrive quietly. He said Main Vaapas Aaunga belongs to the latter category.
The veteran filmmaker said what moved him about the film was not only its story but also the emotional longing that underpins it, describing it as the desire to come home, to be understood, and to “discover whether there is something more to life than the identities we spend a lifetime constructing”.
“Years ago, when I watched Highway, I felt that Imtiaz Ali had heard something that many of us had missed. Beneath the surface of that film was the silent scream of violated young girls hidden within the presumed safety of homes and families. It may not have shaken the box office in the manner expected of mainstream successes, but it illuminated a dark corner of our collective life. For that reason alone, it remains important. The same instinct appears to animate Main Vaapas Aaunga,” he further wrote.
“Many had declared it dead on arrival. That is often the fate of works that refuse to conform to prevailing fashions. The marketplace is entitled to its verdicts. It speaks the language of numbers, and numbers matter. But audiences possess a mysterious intelligence of their own. Sometimes they recognise authenticity before the experts do. The response to this film suggests that beneath all our cynicism, beneath the noise of our times, there remains a hunger for stories that speak to something deeper than our appetites,” Bhatt continued.
“Films will come and go. Trends will come and go. Algorithms will come and go. What remains are works that bear the fingerprints of the human being who made them. Main Vaapas Aaunga bears those fingerprints,” he said.
Set against the backdrop of the Partition of India, Main Vaapas Aaunga stars Diljit Dosanjh, Naseeruddin Shah, Sharvari and Vedang Raina.
The film follows a 95-year-old man who suffers a sudden stroke while trying to travel to Pakistan. As he drifts between consciousness and fragmented memories, his grandson attempts to reconstruct the story of his life before the Partition.
Main Vaapas Aaunga has crossed the Rs 70-crore mark at the global box office in 18 days. It has earned Rs 47.80 crore nett (Rs 57.01 crore gross) in India and Rs 16 crore gross overseas, taking the worldwide gross collection to Rs 73.01 crore.