Homebound

Homebound is a story of two best friends from the less fortunate backgrounds and what all they go through because of their identities. Mohammed Shoaib Ali (Ishaan Khatter) and Chandan Kumar (Vishal Jethwa) hail from a small town in India. The families of both lead a life of poverty. But that’s not all. Shoaib and Chandan also regularly face discrimination on the basis of their religion and caste respectively.

Homebound, directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and written with Varun Grover, Shreedhar Dubey, and Sumit Roy, is a poignant exploration of caste, faith, friendship, and survival in contemporary India. The marginalised have never had it easy—but in our own fractured land, their journey is not just arduous, it is often soul-scarring, as Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound reveals. Arnab Banerjee’s review of the film. With unforgettable performances, sharp social commentary, and emotional depth, Homebound stands as an unflinching cinematic mirror to caste oppression, religious prejudice, and human dignity in India today.

Chandan Kumar (Vishal Jethwa) and Mohammed Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter) are besties with dreams of becoming police constables. Clearing the police recruitment examination, though, is not simply about earning a livelihood and supporting their families but a way to garner respect in a society that trivialises them for their background and identity.

‘होमबाउंड’ इस साल भारत की ओर से ऑस्कर पुरस्कार के लिए ऑफिशियल एंट्री के तौर पर भेजी गई है। 2015 में अपनी पहली फिल्म ‘मसान’ से प्रशंसाएं पाकर सबकी नजरों में आए निर्देशक नीरज घेवान की इस फिल्म को कान और टोरंटों जैसे प्रतिष्ठित फिल्मोत्सवों में सराहना मिल चुकी है।

A decade is a significant interval between the release of the first and second feature film - it took a long time coming but it arrived well. After he made his debut with Masaan (2015) which resonated deeply with audiences, Neeraj Ghaywan has produced another remarkable film with Homebound, a work that is rich in empathy and emotion.

In Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, an essay is breathed into existence. For The New York Times in 2020, journalist Basharat Peer had reported on the COVID-19-infected period in India through the account of two friends’ struggle to reach home. Titled Taking Amrit Home, the piece elaborated on the government-sanctioned lockdown when migrant workers, stranded due to the indefinite closure of urban workspaces and transportation, were forced to walk back to their villages. Mohammad Saiyub and Amrit Kumar, the men in Peer’s article, were part of the exodus ,and while Ghaywan’s film, based on the text, tracks what becomes of the two men, it unfolds as a more lucid adaptation of the unbecoming of a country.

In May 2020, two months into India’s lockdown, journalist Basharat Peer came across a photograph that captured the crisis with devastating clarity. It showed two migrant workers on a Madhya Pradesh highway — one lying unconscious from heatstroke, the other hovering over him, scanning for signs of life. The image was a moment of tenderness amid national neglect. Intrigued and unsettled, Peer investigated the story behind the photo and found that Amrit Kumar, a 24-year-old Dalit worker, and Mohammad Saiyub, a 22-year-old Muslim worker, were childhood friends returning home after the suspension of their factory jobs. Only one made it back.