6 min readMumbaiUpdated: Jun 13, 2026 09:13 AM IST If one were to distil the nomadic worlds of Imtiaz Ali into a simple idea, it would come down to two things: stories and journeys. Across the ten films he has directed, these themes have resurfaced time and again, each time taking on a different form. Sometimes it is the journey of storytelling itself (Tamasha), and at others, the journey towards storytelling (Rockstar). Sometimes the journey becomes the story (Highway), while at other times, stories unfold across journeys (Love Aaj Kal). Binding these journeys and stories together is a force that has always sat at the heart of Ali’s cinema: love. Love in all its unruly forms, unconditional, obsessive, reckless, transformative. His films have long followed people who are searching for meaning, belonging, or simply a way to become themselves. It feels fitting, then, that the filmmaker who has spent a lifetime chronicling lost souls in search of their stories has now turned his gaze towards a nation searching for its own. A nation trying to …