Both Main Vaapas Aaunga and Batwara 1947 talk about the human cost of the Partition of India and Pakistan, but without talking about the hatred or vitriol. Two films may not signify a trend, but 2026 has shown that Bollywood can speak sensitively about something as painful as the Partition. In two months, Hindi cinema has seen the release of two big films set during the Partition of India. These are films about love, about hope, and most importantly, about learning from the past.
Because these two films make that distinction clearly, mind you, I use the term Partition, not Independence,.
Set in 1947, it is about Keenu (Vedang Raina) and Jiya (Sharvari) living on, keeping the promise to each other in their hearts. Batwara 1947, directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, is massier than Main Vaapas Aunga, but retains the humanity of the stories around Partition. We fully respect and acknowledge the authenticity of the incidents that occurred in 1947. Batwara 1947 releases in theatres today, August 14.
Imtiaz Ali ’s Main Vaapas Aaunga is a love story that transcends time and borders. But he found the middle ground by ‘focusing on Jiya and Keenu’. He explains, “It is their personal story and everything else that is happening is kind of out of focus. But they have been about pain (like Pinjar) or rage (in Gadar). The shift now is that films talk about moving past that pain, towards hope, redemption, and moving forward. The film stars Sunny Deol as a Muslim man who moves to Pakistan during Partition, only to find a Hindu woman, played by Shabana Azmi, still living in his new home. As tensions rise, he takes responsibility for protecting her while keeping his family safe. Yeh donon cheez Partition mein dekhi gayi hain. Iss film mein bhi aise emotions hain. (It has been observed that during the Partition, humanity scaled great heights—demonstrating immense courage and making profound sacrifices—yet also committed truly heinous acts. Both these facets were witnessed during the Partition. This film captures those very emotions). The challenge to that is not reducing the political upheaval and the human tragedy to something subservient to an individual’s ‘selfish’ pain. “It’s not as though that we are pretending that it is not happening. We are not trying to say that what is happening is pleasant at all. However, the story is about a young boy and a young girl who are deeply aggrieved by the events of Partition for a very personal reason. They are not so mature or large-hearted as to say that the division of the country is my problem. For them, the problem is the divide between you and me. Main Vaapas Aaunga is currently streaming on Netflix, having completed its theatrical run successfully.
“This is a story of two people but also the story of a country,” the filmmaker tells us. Imtiaz says he understood the challenge of making a soft love story set during the biggest humanitarian tragedy in history. It’s not as if stories of Partition have not been told in Hindi films before. Talking about taking an objective approach to telling a story from that era, director Santoshi says, “Partition ke time pe yeh dekha gaya hai insaan ne bulandiyan bhi touch ki hai, great courage dikhaya hai, great sacrifices bhi diye hain, aur utne ghinaune harkat bhi insaan ne kiye hain. But Imtiaz says a balance has to be sought. That’s what matters to people personally,” says the filmmaker.
