Veteran filmmaker Shekhar Kapur has shared an emotional and deeply personal response after watching Imtiaz Ali'slatest film Main Vaapas Aaunga. Taking to social media, Kapur revealed that the film resonated with him on a profoundly personal level, bringing back memories of his own family's experience during the Partition of India in 1947. His heartfelt note has struck a chord with audiences, highlighting how cinema can reconnect people with painful yet important chapters of history.
Sharing his thoughts, Shekhar Kapur wrote: "Main Wapas Aunga was an emotional upheaval me. I saw on film the story of my own family. The having to escape with your life. The slaughter on the trains. Running between two Nations suddenly. For years my parents refused to talk about it. The memories were too intense. Painful Then slowly my mother narrated everything to my sister ,Sohaila. And everything unfolded on screen for me. Just as my mother had described .. Like Diljit Dosanjh in the film, I too went back to Lahore to search for where my family lived .. what I found is yet another story .. Thank you Imtiaz Ali, for bringing those memories alive for me. I can’t remember crying like this in a film for a long long time. .. … for so much like the absolutely brilliant Naseeruddin Shah in the film, my father .. who was a very modern man, and a famous doctor in Delhi .. would say to me when he was in his 90’s ‘I hope I can see Lahore once again before I die .. He never did .. #MainVaapasAaunga #NaseeruddinShah @naseeruddnshah"
In his moving post, Kapur reflected on how Main Vaapas Aaunga mirrored the experiences his own family endured during the Partition. He spoke about the desperate escape for survival, the horrifying massacres on trains, and the sudden displacement between India and Pakistan. The filmmaker also revealed that his parents rarely spoke about those traumatic events because the memories were simply too painful to revisit. It was only years later that his mother shared those stories with his sister, Sohaila, making it even more emotional for him to see similar moments unfold on the big screen.
Kapur also shared that, much like Diljit Dosanjh's character in the film, he once travelled back to Lahore in search of the home where his family had once lived. That journey, he hinted, became a story of its own. The filmmaker praised Imtiaz Ali for capturing the emotional truth of Partition with such honesty that it transported him back to his family's past and left him overwhelmed with emotion.
Another deeply touching part of Kapur's note was his comparison between Naseeruddin Shah's character in the film and his own father. He recalled how his father, a respected and progressive doctor in Delhi, would often express one final wish during his later years—to visit Lahore one last time before he passed away. Sadly, that dream remained unfulfilled. Kapur admitted that watching the film reminded him of those conversations and moved him to tears, making Main Vaapas Aaunga one of the most emotionally impactful cinematic experiences he has had in years.
With Shekhar Kapur's heartfelt endorsement, Main Vaapas Aaunga has generated even greater curiosity among movie lovers. His personal connection to the story serves as a powerful reminder that the legacy of Partition continues to live on through generations, and that films rooted in human emotions have the ability to preserve memories that history books alone cannot.