New Delhi, June 12 -- Six months later, we're back in Sargodha. Main Vaapas Aaunga journeys to the same Pakistani city Dharmendra visits in Ikkis. Both journeys represent the last wish of a man at the end of his life; both are weighed down by history but lifted by the idea of shared humanity. It's quite a coincidence that Sriram Raghavan and Imtiaz Ali zeroed in on the same place for a similar purpose-but then Ali's cinema has always been powered by blind chance. Even as this film rises to a crescendo, Nirvair (Diljit Dosanjh) pauses to tell a doubter, "So what if it's a coincidence? Coincidences happen in life."

Ali's film opens with Ishar Singh (Naseeruddin Shah) talking back to the newsreader on TV. "I listen to you-why won't you list...