Main Vaapas Aaunga (2026)

Main Vaapas Aaunga (transl. I Will Return) is a 2026 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Imtiaz Ali. The film stars Naseeruddin Shah, Diljit Dosanjh, Sharvari and Vedang Raina in lead roles, with Vinod Nagpal, Dolly Ahluwalia, Rajat Kapoor, Sanjay Suri, Manish Chaudhari, Anjana Sukhani, Banita Sandhu and Danish Pandor in supporting roles.The film centres on a grandson who cares for his dying, dementia-stricken grandfather as the elderly man revisits memories of a tragic romance during the 1947 partition of India. Principal photography began in August 2025 and ended in December 2025.

The film was theatrically released on 12 June 2026. It received mostly positive reviews from critics, with unanimous praise for Shah's performance. It emerged as a sleeper hit. It is the 10th highest-grossing Hindi film of 2026.

95-year-old Ishar Singh Grewal/Keenu suffers a stroke and is on his deathbed. Despite failing health and advancing dementia, he refuses to let go of life, desperately muttering about returning to his ancestral home in Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan. His grandson, Nirvair, returns from London and acting as his caregiver attempts to make sense of his disjointed ramblings.

The story goes back 78 years to British India. A younger Ishar is a rowdy young college student who loves jazz and cricket, but is painfully awkward around young women. He falls in love with a young Muslim woman named Afsana/Jiya. Their budding romance is abruptly shattered by the violence and mass migration of the 1947 partition of India. When Sikhs are forced to leave for East Punjab in India, Keenu and the men of his family flee, leaving both their female relatives and Jiya behind in the chaos. Having vowed to Jiya that he will never leave without her permission, Keenu returns six years after Partition to find his female relatives and reunite with Jiya, but he learns the bitter truth of what happened after the men fled. Broken by his experiences during Partition and haunted by the disturbing fate of his female relatives, Keenu becomes a cold, angry man who terrorizes his family and has no close friends.

Nirvair investigates his grandfather’s past to give him peace, teasing the truth out of his grandfather’s ramblings with help from historians, archives and his reluctant great-uncle, Pali. In Keenu’s final days, Nirvair takes advantage of his British passport and crosses into Pakistan, locating Jiya's family. He discovers a devastating truth: Jiya died 10 years prior, having spent her life waiting for Keenu to fulfill his promise to return. Through a video call, Keenu sees Jiya’s portrait, and hallucinates a vision of a young Jiya. Elated that he can finally recite a poem he wrote for her long ago, Keenu finally asks Jiya for permission to leave. She grants it, allowing him to pass away peacefully.

The film ends with footage of real refugees across the world, enduring the same trauma and suffering as Keenu and the countless refugees caught in the crossfire of Partition.