Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi! 2005

Aditya Verma, affectionately called Adi Chachu or Adi Uncle by the children of his brothers, Shahid Kapoor plays Adi, the steady, hard-working center of a sprawling Mumbai mansion. He holds the family together as the only working member, living amidst his two brothers—one of whom has burned out his own chances in life—and a sister, sister-in-law, and their grandmother, Suhasini Mulay. The home’s weight rests on Adi’s shoulders, even as a plane crash steals one brother away along with his wife, leaving the other brother, Sunil Verma, Mohnish Behl, to battle a long-standing drinking problem. The family’s dynamic is tender but fragile, threaded with love, duty, and the quiet despair of a house that feels almost too big to manage.

Adi’s heart is pulled toward Piya, Amrita Rao, a warm tuition teacher with whom he shares a budding, hopeful romance. They confess their feelings and begin to dream of a future together, a plan to marry that promises normalcy and happiness beyond the family’s mounting pressures. Yet fate intervenes in a dramatic and devastating way: on the way to an important meeting, Adi rushes to save Parth, Master Parth Dave, and is struck by a truck, dying before his time.

In the strange, luminous space of the afterlife, Adi encounters Yama, the god of death, a figure who is at once formidable and surprisingly compassionate. Played with warmth and flair by Sanjay Dutt, Yamraj is not the stern judge one might expect; he wears designer clothes and a red car, and his emotional core begins to soften as he weighs Adi’s wish to return. Yamraj grants Adi a temporary, ghostly return to Earth so he can intervene in the danger threatening his family’s home: the unscrupulous Harish, Adi’s uncle, Prem Chopra, schemes to sell the mansion to powerful industrialist Hirachand, Sharat Saxena. The stakes are personal, and the clock is ticking.

To make contact with the living again, Adi enlists the aid of Shakti, a bright little boy who had been chosen to accompany Adi to heaven. Shakti, Darshil Mashru, embodies a bridge between worlds, and together they seek a way to break through the invisibility that has kept them unseen. They also cross paths with Fakira Bhai B.P.C.M., a mischievous yet resourceful figure played by Arshad Warsi, who grants them the ability to touch humans once more and to move within the living world more freely. With this newly found power, Adi can finally see and influence his family again, offering real hope to those who fear losing him.

As the plot thickens, Yamraj becomes more than a guide; he becomes a father figure of sorts, granting Adi and Shakti moments of sight into the living world for a few brief minutes. The family, upon catching glimpses of what feels like a miraculous return, pleads for Adi to stay with them, while Adi himself wrestles with the reality that his time as a ghost is only temporary. The look of pain and longing in the eyes of his loved ones is palpable, and the movie leans into their emotional stakes with quiet, sincere honesty.

The emotional fulcrum comes when the family awakens, unsure whether what they experienced was a dream or a haunting memory. Only Adi and Shakti carry the truth of their return—the knowledge that death briefly paused to give them a chance to be together again. Yet even with this glimpse of possibility, the world does not fully rewrite itself. A final, hopeful turn arrives when a figure bearing the same voidless charm as Yamraj—an actor who mirrors the god’s presence—appears in Adi’s life and offers to buy the mansion. Adi, steadfast in his love for Piya and his family, declines the offer, choosing instead to remain with Piya and his kin, cherishing the life they can still build together.

In the end, the film mends the fractures of a family by affirming love, loyalty, and the stubborn, enduring power of home. Adi’s decision to stay, coupled with the gentle, quasi-mystical kindness of Yamraj, leaves the household not with an eerie aftertaste but with a tender sense of closure. The mansion remains a symbol of memory and belonging, a place where the dead can touch the living not with fear, but with a quiet, enduring welcome.