Opinion ‘Homebound’ wraps harsh truths of our times in a moving tale of friendship
Even as the Neeraj Ghaywan-directed ‘Homebound’ explores the fault-lines in the society and darkest hours of present-day India, the movie lets hope permeate the narrative
Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa in Homebound. 
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Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound is now headed to the Oscars. After a long time, the announcement of India’s official entry for the Academy Award in the Best International Feature Film category has not sparked any controversy. Yet, receiving such a wide endorsement of this choice is not the film’s greatest achievement. Since its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Homebound has generated significant international buzz. This was reinforced, most recently, when it won the International Audience Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
This textured and emotionally rich tale of friendship between the two central characters — Chandan (Vishal Jethwa), a Dalit, and Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter), a Muslim — is a brilliant documentation of present-day India. The film engages with identity politics and the biases rooted in caste and religion, even as it remains firmly anchored in the personal journeys of its two protagonists, who dream of a better life and the dignity that a job in the police department could bring. The system, however, fails them. Their aspirations also collide with the harsh realities of a society that judges them on the basis of their caste and religion regardless of their abilities.
Importantly, the film also confronts the impact of the Covid pandemic — a subject largely neglected by mainstream cinema. It brings back the heart-wrenching visuals of migrant labourers who were forced to walk for days to reach their native villages after the government-imposed lockdown. Chandan and Shoaib too undertake this arduous journey. Their personal struggles are a grim reminder of a collective tragedy that remains one of the darkest chapters of our recent history.
Homebound draws its inspiration from journalist Basharat Peer’s news feature, ‘Taking Amrit Home’ published in The New York Times on July 31, 2020. The article was about two Indian workers who were childhood friends — Mohammad Saiyub, a 22-year-old Muslim, and Amrit Kumar, a 24-year-old Dalit — who became part of the mass migration of millions during the Covid lockdown. Peer reconstructed their ordeal after being moved by a photograph of Saiyub seated by a highway, holding Amrit in his lap after he had collapsed from heatstroke.
While Ghaywan’s film fictionalised their story and gave it a cinematic form, the movie preserves its emotional core. He also made sure the script remained truthful to their world and everyday struggles. It is noteworthy that Karan Johar-led Dharma Productions, usually associated with romantic sagas and larger-than-life spectacles, chose to conceive such a project notwithstanding the prevailing political climate. Now, by picking Homebound as India’s Oscar entry, the Film Federation of India too has extended its support to a film that folds biting social commentary into its haunting tale.
The film displays remarkable cinematic control over its narrative — balancing compelling performances, an engaging script, nuanced dialogues, and striking visuals. Ghaywan seems to deliberately sidestep anger or activism. Even when Chandan and Shoaib face the harshest treatment because of their caste and religion, respectively, Ghaywan refrains from underlining the obvious. Instead, by allowing the characters to breathe, cope with their setbacks and gradually chart their journeys, the film makes a deeper emotional impact. This convinces the audience that the narrative has emerged from lived experience.
Even in its darkest moments, Homebound offers a balm. The film contains sequences of crushing heartbreak, yet it allows hope to permeate the narrative, creating space for empathy. Ghaywan believes in finding “beauty” in such acts and moments of empathy. It is evident that the director-writer, who worked on the script for over three years, is keen to share that “beauty” with his audience. This sensibility was also evident in his debut feature, Masaan (2015), where a young engineer from a lower caste grapples with heartbreak, and a young woman endures humiliation and blackmail while coping with guilt. In Masaan, both characters ultimately learn to move forward and invest in their futures, with the open-ended narrative leaving room for multiple possibilities.
In the past, only three of India’s submissions — Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay! (1988), and Lagaan (2001) — have secured nominations for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. This remains a fiercely competitive category, with global entries such as Brazil’s The Secret Agent, France’s It Was Just an Accident, Hungary’s Orphan, Palestine’s Palestine36, Norway’s Sentimental Value, Poland’s Franz, Spain’s Sirāt, and Tunisia’s The Voice of Hind Rajab already enjoying international acclaim and appreciation.
Released in India on September 26, Homebound brings to the audience a story that is rooted deeply in reality and told with rare honesty. The true triumph of the film will lie in its ability to make viewers reflect and question, marking its victory even before it embarks on its Oscar journey.
alaka.sahani@expressindia.com
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