Have Never Seen an Audience Watching a Film so Quietly: Imtiaz Ali on 'Main Vaapas Aaunga'

Imtiaz Ali knew each time he picked up a newspaper that he wanted to connect the headlines of displacement and destruction to his story of Partition. He realised that vision in “Main Vaapas Aaunga”, a film that draws an arc from past to present, and from the subcontinent to the rest of the world.

"I kept reading that there is some destruction, there is some battle and there are more and more people getting abandoned, becoming refugees and getting on to the verge of existence... I couldn't help but think that this is exactly what happened in Partition," Ali told PTI in an interview.

The director celebrated his 55th birthday on Tuesday and his greatest birthday gift possibly is the response to the film, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Diljit Dosanjh, Vedang Raina and Sharvari: youngsters sitting quietly and empathising with the story about a 95-year-old remembering the love he left behind on the other side of the border.

The film is told through the ramblings of the old man (Shah) to his grandson (Dosanjh) who joins the dots to draw a picture of Partition trauma and a romance that survived the decades.

As the credits roll, news clips from various contemporary events of war, bombings and bloodshed, of displaced people from around the world and different ethnicities flash across the screen. Also hope with shots of children smiling through it all.

It is set to a song of peace, “Kya Kamaal Hai”, voiced by Dosanjh and composed by A R Rahman. An anonymous quote by a refugee ties it all together: “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 that ‘let's do this in the end’. And we present actual footage of people that are going through the severities of being partitioned from their homes, like we did in 1947. And also connect the visuals. And I wanted this song for that,” Ali said.

The director, whose filmography includes “Jab We Met”, “Rockstar”, “Love Aaj Kal” and “Amar Singh Chamkila”, has been doing the rounds of theatres to gauge the response of audiences.

It has been a gratifying experience.

"There is this feeling that what I wanted to say has been communicated... I have never seen an audience watching the film so quietly. In all of my successful films also, people have this habit of fidgeting here and there. This time, they're really paying attention, the younger people are paying attention. They are coming in such numbers and receiving the film so well."

The director, famous for his take on relationships, is especially happy that the “intimacy and affection” central to the story have connected with the young.

"I have said it many times that the present generation feel a little lost because they don't find sustaining love, something they can just hold in their hearts, that old-fashioned love, like old music. That longing, that yearning, that holding one person and being with that person, they are relating to that,” Ali said.

The film, he added, is about discovering inter-generational connections that we need to make sense of the present.

"The situation 78 years back was different and the way those guys had to be in order to survive is different. Now Nirvair (Dosanjh) has the mind space to reconnect and he should because otherwise, he will never feel whole or settled.” Discussing his last sequence, Ali said it became possible because of Dosanjh and his long-time collaborator, lyricist Irshad Kamil.

"A lot of people have said that they think the whole 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 then there is something that you can do, which goes beyond the film'.

"Diljit Dosanjh said, 'Sir, from here, this will be a very different connection. A very different aspect of the mind will open. You have to make this song'.” There was no budget for the sequence and the money was taken from the publicity budget.

“But I wanted to do this. And Diljit wanted to do this. We shot it quickly,” he said, adding that cinema is permanent and the visuals will be there for all time as evidence of what happened.

According to Ali, he deliberately did not over-emphasise the magnitude of the tragedy told through the remembrances of the aging man on his deathbed.

"Whenever there was something emotional in the script or during the shooting, I did not linger on it. I did not over explain it. I did not over-emphasise it. I did not create an atmosphere of great emotionality...,” he said.

"I knew this had strength. I knew I didn't have to hold its hand because the emotion was so strong. I thought let it flow while I get ready for the next scene," he said.

In the film, the old man clubs rioters and Hitler as those who came from Mars. It was very deliberate, Ali explained, adding that he didn't want to connect them to any religion, human or even animals.

"They have to come from another planet to create that kind of violence." Through the telling of the story on Partition, Ali said he wants those watching his film to tap into their humanity.

"I want to say that history is not just an episode of the past. Memory is a river that flows both ways. I want to quote Michael Jackson. He said: ‘I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways.’ "… The mistake we make is we feel we are powerless. We are not powerless... It can happen only because people want it. No one will come from outside. No Martian will come in a spacecraft and do it for you."