Photo Courtesy: nenow
Guwahati: Imtiaz Ali’s 2026 film Main Vaapas Aaunga overcame a slow start to become a massive hit. It centers on 95-year-old Ishar Singh, nicknamed Keenu. Naseeruddin Shah plays the dementia-stricken veteran. Keenu longs for his ancestral home in Sargodha, Pakistan. He lived through the 1947 Partition.
The film echoes the 2016 National Award-winning Assamese drama Dikchow Banat Palaax. Directed by Sanjib Sabhapandit, that story follows an elderly freedom fighter. Kulada Kumar Bhattacharjee plays the lead. He seeks a return to the Naga Hills, once part of Assam.
Both films feature younger relatives acting as caregivers for distressed men. Nirvair, played by Diljit Dosanjh, supports his grandfather Keenu. The Assamese film shows the family of the freedom fighter tending to him as he cries out for Nagaland at night. Both protagonists carry haunting, unfulfilled promises from their youth. Keenu holds an unrecited poem for his lost love, Afsana, played by Sharvari. The freedom fighter seeks to repay coins given to him by a Naga woman decades prior.
Flashbacks define the emotional stakes. In Main Vaapas Aaunga, a young Keenu played by Vedang Raina faces separation during the violent Partition. The Assamese film shifts to 1946. It details the protagonist’s life among the Naga people and a tragic, permanent separation from a local woman.
The execution varies in scale. Imtiaz Ali utilizes a large budget to expand the narrative. The Assamese production remains modest but effective. The films contrast sharply with modern, hyper-nationalist cinema. "Audiences have embraced Main Vaapas Aaunga because it replaces the hyper-nationalism seen in films such as Dhurandhar (2025) with genuine emotion and understated sentiment."
Naseeruddin Shah leads the cast alongside Vedang Raina and Sharvari. Kulada Kumar Bhattacharjee anchors the Assamese film with help from Mala Goswami, Chinmoy Chakraborty, Mina Ingti, and Sajan Nayak. A. R. Rahman composed the music for the new release. Anurag Saikia handled the score for the 2016 production. Dikchow Banat Palaax holds the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.
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