THE STORY – Two childhood friends from a small village in North India pursue a police job that offers them the dignity they have long been denied. As they move closer to their goal, rising desperation begins to strain the bond between them.
THE CAST – Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa, Janhvi Kapoor & Reem Shaikh
THE TEAM – Neeraj Ghaywan (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 119
Neeraj Ghaywan’s latest feature about the political scape of India’s rural villages poignantly portrays the inescapable fate of othered communities trying to soar higher than society allows. Focusing on two friends who aspire to become Police Officers to guarantee stable financial income for themselves and their family, only for their efforts to be swept under the rug as their roots come into question and the cultural and political fractures of India bear its fated hand on the young men aiming to break free.
“Homebound” journeys into the waiting process in the pursuit of government jobs. However, recruitment is seemingly put on hold despite Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter) and Chandan’s persistence (Vishal Jethwa) to make it big and break out of the bubble society has created for them. Among the many disillusioned youths desperately seeking a sufficient living, for Shoaib and Chandan, that means becoming police officers, so blindly under the assumption that representing the government would shield them from further discrimination going forward, unbeknownst to them at the time that the system is deeply broken internally to allow free reign such as immunity from prejudice—a harsh reminder they constantly face until the end.
A year passes, and no outcome has been made clear about their potential employment, only exacerbating their concerns and leaving them financially and socially vulnerable. It is telling that these jobs are desired for simply two things: money and respect. Both seem out of their grasp entirely, and it is difficult to have both at once.
Chandan seems encouraged to join college, though, the first within his family, and eager to connect with his romantic interest; Sudha is encouraging him to pursue his potential academic calling – more importantly, he is being granted a degree that is considered to be able to set you up for a respectable career anywhere. But Chandan is wedged between the urgency of his family’s home environment being below par and desiring a clear improvement to sustain a decent living for himself and his family, particularly his mom, who is still working while aiming to hold onto his education and remain involved in Sudha’s life, someone who reciprocates love and affection that he so clearly craves. Meanwhile, Shoaib is forced to pay immediate care and attention to his father, who is currently obstructed by a damaged knee but unable to afford surgery to recover and return to the fields.
This is made all the more challenging of a dilemma when their lifetime friend Shoaib is similarly struggling with finding his feet on a ground that is so clearly uneven against his favor. Battling with the responsibility of living up to his father’s expectations but also weighed down by immense sadness at being unable to provide a comfortable living environment for his family as his powerlessness is immensely felt with his identity constantly discarded by employers and people within the surrounding communities displaying subtle but oftentimes openly casual Islamophobia.
One of the key moments that make this film so timely happens when Shoaib is invited to a work party to celebrate by watching the cricket match between India and Pakistan. His mother kindly offering homemade halwa (sweet desi dessert) as a way to pay their respects and gratitude for taking Shoaib on, only for Shoaib’s fears to be made clear. No matter what he achieves and how seemingly talented and grateful he may be to people who take an interest in him, he still won’t be seen as a human. To his boss and colleagues, he’s just a ’ dirty-looking Pakistani Muslim who plagues their country and is an object of mockery. It may be just a ‘joke’ for the boss and his peers because they are apparently just drunk, but to Shoaib, it is clear that this is how they actually feel about him. What really leaves an impression is the following conversation with his supervising friend, who pleads to ignore their remarks and avoid resigning or even confronting them for their poorly conceived perception of Shoaib. But enough is enough. If a man like him, who has the status, respect, and education, doesn’t care to speak out against wrongdoings he casually witnesses, what chance does Shoaib have, who seems to lack all those qualities, to make any dent in their misjudgment and get them to listen. It speaks to a larger problem within the world where privileged people and complicity work in tandem to avoid expressing disapproval against the mistreatment of others, knowing full well that it is wrong. They are too afraid or uninterested to say anything yet expect the victims and the marginalized to be the ones to stand in the front lines by themselves, not realizing they were born into these unfortunate circumstances that the privileged directly or indirectly helped give life to. In this context, it is quite puzzling how a different caste or religion can determine the perception of someone to the point of damnation.
Neeraj doesn’t aim to please and mainly seeks to honestly convey the constant plight that brings these families and communities down. Even when all seems to be looking upward for Chandan and Shoaib as they finally land jobs to earn income and support their households, there are still trials and tribulations they are forced to go through, showing that even when you may get what you want, it may not be enough to make an actual difference. Evaporating any kind of fairy tale ending in sight, the two protagonists are crushed by the weight of reality as COVID-19 spreads through the world and leaves nearly no stones untouched in its full might. One of the pressing world topics over the past few years has been the effect of the post-pandemic on how it governs society’s economic state. Despite being such a deeply traumatic and discussed period, it is still somewhat rare to find films that actually explore
The biggest damage to Shoaib and Chandan, among many other workers, is the institutions closing down and the service being indefinitely suspended. No more work means no more money. The power to support and manage an independent life takes so much time yet easily goes away within the blink of a second.
“Homebound” cleverly plays off the script and builds together a circular narrative that wonderfully and tragically pays off by the end. One of the most notable instances is Chandan’s mother complaining about her feet being in poor, dry conditions. Chandan decides to do something where he buys her beautiful shoes so she no longer has to bear those insecurities that may trouble her. Unfortunately, how she receives such a generous gift isn’t what Chandan intended, and she couldn’t make it after losing the battle.
Ishaan Khatter demonstrates a wide range of emotions and physicality to his character that poignantly conveys the ruin and damnation Shoaib seems to find himself in. The final act makes this clearer when he is put to the test to keep his best friend alive while he falls sick, gradually accepting the reality that he is now alone in his fight, but fight he does. Vishal Jethwa has a more subdued presence but is quietly intense in exactly the right places; in fact, the cast overall displays a range of praiseworthy performances filled with humanity and easily evoking strong emotions from the viewer. Neeraj’s visual style only emphasizes this profound sense of melancholy and hopelessness further.
“Homebound” is both especially relevant in its exploration of the marginalized communities suffering on the outskirts for the identities society deemed lesser and increasingly resonant for how it shows human endurance does continue to live and fight on in pursuit of achieving their dreams to one day escape, earn their right to freedom and show that no single person should be defined by their background or community. Changes in such attitudes are up for debate as these moments of prejudice ultimately continue to stick around in society and shape the degradation of the world and time we live in. However, conversations and films that intend to highlight this disparity are more essential than ever to continue that fight. That begins with finding the necessary distribution for the film back in India.
