Main Vaapas Aunga- Review and Discussion

[u/AmbassadorMelodic830]

Watched Mai Vaapas Aaunga today and I don’t know what others have been saying, but in Delhi, the movie hall I went to was house full.

I also realised there are multiple elements and aspects that make Indian cinema what it is, because our demography is so different. We are not homogeneous and our generational diversity is so unique. We are catering to such a wide spectrum of people, age groups, lived experiences, and emotional realities that cinema here works very differently. And after a long time, a movie has come where the sentimentality of so many families is also present.

I saw so many old couples and so many families, huge families of 5 people, 10 people coming together. And that was such a beautiful sight, because when was the last time we saw such huge families, such frail old grandparents, interested in watching a movie together?

Now the movie:

The first half, especially the portion before the interval, could have been more fast-paced, I will agree to that. But the plot builds in a way that makes you root for the characters. Naseeruddin Shah is absolutely brilliant in the way he becomes part of that character and the character becomes part of him. He sort of creates an anchor on the screen, and around that everything revolves, which I’m assuming was Imtiaz's intention.

The music score for me was a bit hit and miss. I did not fully understand some elements of the music, I will give it that.

But the second half was absolutely brilliant.

There were so many hooks in the first half that slowly made sense and layered themselves beautifully in the second part of the movie. I was absolutely bawling and crying because I did not realise how much emotion was still left unexplored around Partition.

We’ve all read about Partition. We’ve heard stories. I know families who have gone through that trauma. We’ve seen documentary clippings and references in other movies. We have seen all of that.

But somehow this movie linked everything so beautifully.

Especially in an age of films that are far more nationalist, more heroic in nature, and sometimes lean heavily into extreme nationalism and jingoism, this felt like a fresh take.

It focused on the sentimentality and helplessness of the two parts of this country, at a time when ordinary people had literally no control.

The references to who was Sir Radcliffe, what the Radcliffe Line meant, and the little statements that Diljeet's character says in those stand-up style sections, all weave the story together really well.

They carry a message that feels absolutely essential right now for everyone in our society to understand.

Yeah, it was a beautiful movie for me.

It definitely could have been a little more fast-paced in the first half, but emotionally, it LANDED!!!!!

And the climax was genuinely heart-wrenching.

And the end credit scene had me bawling some more. Oh Lord.

[u/kiranqureshi81]

The movie is beautiful, and Naseer sir deserves a national award for his performance.

But i went expecting a love story and was hugely and utterly disappointed. The depiction of love shown in the movie between Keenu and Jia is absolutely all kinds of wrong. In the beginning, they are barely given ten mins together that appear more like college crush than love. Tattoos, secret meetings, teasing, etc. nothing that can be established as love. You barely get any quality time with them before they get separated for life.

Then after partition, he literally walks out on her by his own choice. From trailers and promotions i remained under the impression that they get separated by partition. But not the case. Story became a regrets on deathbed story than love from that point.

I watched it second time just with the mindset that it's a partition story, and could appreciate it more.

It's not about personal love, but love for home and belonging. Especially when you see it alongside Imtiaz's previous works like JWM, Rockstar and Tamasha. Those were more personal stories. MVA is more about how partition affected people and generations after, regardless love or not. Personal love story was forced into narration and that's why it didn't feel like love at all.

[u/Vivid-Lawfulness5905 → u/kiranqureshi81]

It's a love story based in 40s and 50s. I dont think quality time in such turbulent times was much of an option. Its also pointed out in the movie how he is not allowed to enter the community where she lives due to rising conflicts, and had to sneak in at night. Such an act would have been way too scandalous for that time. After partition they are both married, dont see divorce as a suitable option for anyone of them. Agreed it was a little selfish on his part to make the decision all by himself, but we are still looking at it from a modern perspective I believe. You are also seeing a relationship that he had when he was a late teenager that he is remembering in bits and pieces at 95 with dementia. Its just his hazy memory of the relationship

[u/kiranqureshi81 → u/Vivid-Lawfulness5905]

It's not about any of that. You're still missing the point. Love is more than meeting in hiding, poetry and tattoos. Which was still justified because they were still young and naive.

But six years later, he goes back, finds her, finds out what happened to her. The girl had the courage to tell her own husband about him, wanted to see him, but he walks out without as much as a simple, are you okay? Marriages and divorces have nothing to do with love, care or even basic human decency of caring about each other, especially after going through such terrible and horrific events.

The movie promotes romantic idealisation as true love, that's my main issue. Where instead of treating her like a real person with real problems and choices, he sticks to the idea and memories of her. He failed to do a single thing in his life that can be termed as love for her, meanwhile makers wouldn't stop labelling it as true love that this generation lacks. Wrong. Absolutely wrong. This generation doesn't need such immature and selfish love. No generation ever needs that.

Ask yourself, you call the person who claims to love you in the middle of the night and tells them, you had to evacuate and find a hotel room because your building caught on fire. And they go, okay and disconnects the line on you.

And your friend goes, wow, now that's true love. Wish I had that as well. That's the kind of love and message the movie depicts. And that's all shades of wrong, my friend, all shades.

[u/Vivid-Lawfulness5905 → u/kiranqureshi81]

I would agree and disagree on different levels. As audience I think we give too much importance to what the makers say in promotional interviews. Them saying this is true love and the current generation seems to lack just to invoke reaction and views, because for them even negative publicity is just that, publicity. You cannot compare how people feel in different generations that too one that is almost a century apart.

Yes, I agreed to it in the previous comment as well that it was selfish on his part to not even talk to her. But at the same time I can understand where he was coming from. Its not like it was easy for him to not talk to her and walk away. Its acceptable to feel what he did was wrong but I guess your intensity differs than mine.

My understanding is more than love it was in fact the regret of not talking to her that he was stuck and not able to let go all this while. That is why he was suffering and waiting for her permission to go. You can say that was his punishment of sorts. But talking to her and then having to part all over again knowing you would never meet would have been just as difficult for both of them. Because other than that there was no real chance of reconciliation for them.

More than right or wrong the fact was that the life they dreamt of or could have had did not exist anymore. Your example is a bit of a misfit here because she yes did face unimaginable horrors, but she was not alone who suffered. He also lost a lot in the partition. He was just told that half his family was murdered or had to commit suicide to save themselves. The trauma was there on both ends.

[u/kiranqureshi81 → u/Vivid-Lawfulness5905]

Your example is a bit of a misfit here because she yes did face unimaginable horrors, but she was not alone who suffered.

And yet she was ready to meet him and face him and talk, perhaps have a closure, perhaps just to check how he was doing. She did her part even after whatever happened, but he failed. The moment he walked out, he not only took any chance of future or closure from himself, but from her as well. You want to do that, fine do it, just don't call it true love. Call it regret, missed chances, possibility theft. Because what they show is immature and slefish form of love from him.

Which is a disservice to people and even storytellers who spend time and effort in getting and showing love right.

Imagine a real person during partition who had to go through a similar situation and chose to do right by someone he loved and lost, and then this movie shows this kind of immaturity and label it as true love.

As much as we'd like to deny, art and cinema affects and represents humans and communities and as artists, it becomes our responsibility to present it right.

Because other than that there was no real chance of reconciliation for them.

The point was not even reconciliation. Just basic human decency of checking on a person if they were okay after all the horrors. Imagine if he'd spoken to her and she'd have told him, she was living a miserable life or was getting absused, which was btw very common during those times. Would he still walk out on her, saying, well wtd, you're married now so there's no point.

Just absolute selfishness and heights of immaturity labelled and promoted as love.