Punjabis are possibly the most emotional people on the planet. They cry at weddings, fight at funerals, drape entire interiors in marble and make over-the-top movies about love and loss. Which makes it all the more puzzling that Bollywood, practically a Punjabi family business at this point, has given us so few films about Partition. Some movies about partition (of India and Pakistan) that I can think of are - Train to Pakistan, Tamas and Earth. All three of these I would consider Indian-indies, not typical Bollywood fare. Seventy-nine years, fourteen million displaced, a million dead, and we're still barely scratching the surface of the terrible geo-political event that led to the creation of a new nation called Pakistan.
Bollywood in 2020s, is a mere shadow of what it used to be, at least in my eyes. But finally it comes out with Mein Vapas Aunga - a true Partition story. Better late than never. The premise hits you like a train, the kind that crossed the border in 1947 carrying things nobody wanted to talk about for decades.
A 90-something man, deep in dementia, remembers exactly one thing from his entire life: his first love, lost to Partition almost eight decades ago. Very Titanic-ish. That memory of his first love is what is left in his whole hard drive. Everything else is gone. Just her, stuck on loop in a dying brain. India's Titanic, but with more tragedy, zero Leonardo DiCaprio and plenty of Naseeruddin Shah and a dollop of Diljit Dosanjh.
Naseeruddin Shah is extraordinary here. The man is confined to a bed for practically the entire film, and yet you cannot look away. Shah, as the bed-ridden patriarch at the death's door, gives an almost perfect portrayal of someone fading away into dementia. It is one of the best performances I've watched in recent history by a Bollywood actor. Whoever wrote his dialogues deserves their own award night.
I am not a fan of Imtiaz Ali's films in general, but you have to give it to the man, he is all about showcasing the vulnerable sigma male in his movies. This time that man happens to be a 90+ year old.
Diljit Dosanjh is a perfect fit for the NRI grandson. The casting wrinkle is Vedang Raina playing the young protagonist. At 24-26 he reads a little too rigid, too unbothered, while Sharvari playing opposite him carries more emotional weight in every scene they are together. She seems older, he seems elsewhere. That pairing and the wooden-acting of Vedang Raina is a minor complaint in an otherwise well-mounted film.
Watch it. Then some of you may end up calling your parents or grandparents.
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