Mahesh Bhatt has penned a special note for Imtiaz Ali following the box-office performance of Main Vaapas Aaunga, saying the film deserves to be celebrated.

Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali's Main Vaapas Aaunga may have stumbled at the box office after its June 12 release, but the film has since scripted an impressive comeback, powered by glowing word of mouth. Its unexpected turnaround has caught the industry's attention, with filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt hailing the film's growing success and saying it is proof that audiences possess a "mysterious intelligence" of their own.

He mentioned that there are “films that arrive with drums and trumpets, announcing themselves like conquerors”, and there are films that arrive quietly, asserting that Main Vaapas Aaunga belongs to the latter category.

The filmmaker added that what moved him about Main Vaapas Aaunga was not just its story, but the thirst that runs beneath it. Mahesh went on to describe that longing as the desire to come home, to be understood, and to “discover whether there is something more to life than the identities we spend a lifetime constructing”.

Mahesh shared, “Years ago, when I watched Highway, I felt that Imtiaz Ali had heard something that many of us had missed. Beneath the surface of that film was the silent scream of violated young girls hidden within the presumed safety of homes and families. It may not have shaken the box office in the manner expected of mainstream successes, but it illuminated a dark corner of our collective life. For that reason alone, it remains important. The same instinct appears to animate Main Vaapas Aaunga.”

He added, “Many had declared it dead on arrival. That is often the fate of works that refuse to conform to prevailing fashions. The marketplace is entitled to its verdicts. It speaks the language of numbers, and numbers matter. But audiences possess a mysterious intelligence of their own. Sometimes they recognise authenticity before the experts do. The response to this film suggests that beneath all our cynicism, beneath the noise of our times, there remains a hunger for stories that speak to something deeper than our appetites.”

In the note, Mahesh shared that “films will come and go. Trends will come and go. Algorithms will come and go. What remains are works that bear the fingerprints of the human being who made them. Main Vaapas Aaunga bears those fingerprints”. He added that it is the reason that the film needs to be celebrated.

The film centers on a 95-year-old man who suffers a sudden stroke while frantically attempting to travel to Pakistan. As the elderly man drifts between consciousness and fragmented memories, his grandson steps in to piece together scattered recollections of a life lived before the Partition. Through this intergenerational journey, the grandson faces the painful reality of a dying man unable to find closure in his final days. Hindustan Times' review for the film reads: “There's a certain skill to Imtiaz's filmmaking. When skill is honed to this degree, it begins to resemble magic, and that's precisely what one feels while watching his work.”

It was released in theatres on June 12. The film took a slow start, collecting ₹1.15 crore on its opening day. It registered a jump of over 130% on its second Friday, and has been holding steady at the box office since then.