Homebound Review | Neeraj Ghaywan Delivers a Poignant and Soulful Friendship Tale

It was interesting that the theatrical release of Neeraj Ghaywan’s new film Homebound, which will be India’s official entry for the Oscars, coincided with the OTT release of another Dharma Productions film, Dhadak 2. Dhadak 1 and 2 were remakes based on movies that talked about the deep-rooted impact of caste in our society. The theme of Homebound also indulges in that aspect of our country. However, that quality of building a world around its main characters and giving us a gut-wrenching pain with one dramatic smack, which was there in Ghaywan’s first film, Masaan, is there in this film as well. What we eventually get is a profound drama that tries to talk about hope by showing the multiple levels and layers of that exhausting fight.

Chandan and Shoaib belong to a rural village in Uttar Pradesh, and they are best of friends. Both of them want to get the job of a police constable in the state because they feel that the job will give them the desired respectability. With the system taking its own sweet time and the society constantly making them feel less about themselves, life wasn’t easy for these two friends, where one belonged to a minority and the other to a backward caste. What we see here is the tough journey of these two individuals.

The movie is based on a real Story that featured in The Newyork Times that talked about the struggle of two friends from UP during the COVID lockdown. Neeraj Ghaywan is actually building a solid backstory to that source material. The COVID struggle of the two friends is actually a pivotal, yet brief, phase of the entire Story. However, for that part to be impactful, the audience’s knowledge about the personal insecurities of these characters was essential. Ghaywan uses a good chunk of the movie to show us the various challenges faced by these two. Both are forced to suppress their opinions in front of those who insult them, because they want to survive. The good thing about the writing is that, even though we know what sort of issues Shoaib will have to face at work, the eventual presentation of those moments feels real. In Chandan’s case, he is shown as someone afraid to fight for his identity, but at a later stage, we realize what made him such an individual.

In Tamil, we have seen a slew of movies that brought the Ambedkarite politics into the mainstream, and they were mostly these stories about resistance. We have that classic dialogue from Asuran where Dhanush’s character says something of the lines, “They will take your property, they will take your land, but no one can steal your education.” The core idea of something like Homebound has a resemblance to the themes we saw in those Pa Ranjith, Maari Selvaraj kind of films. But Neeraj Ghaywan’s approach has grounded characters who have that fear, and they are fighting for the minimum. The antagonist side of the Story is mostly circumstances rather than a particular individual. When you look at Chandan’s love Story, there is no upper-caste-lower-caste tussle here. The conflict arises there due to a lack of ambition. Shoaib’s challenges are mostly related to the judgmental outlook of people around him.

There are these minute details about the hardships in the lives of these two and their family that Neeraj manages to register subtly. Most of them have that sweet, funny, or hopeful feel to their credit. But when the film reaches that final phase where we see the struggle of the young boys, all these elements are getting a callback, and it makes all those moments extremely unsettling. Neeraj Ghaywan has shown in Masaan that he can pull off death scenes without any sort of theatrics, and the man does it again in Homebound. In some ways, the emotional arc of both Masaan and Homebound has a similarity. There is that sense of “moving on” energy in characters that made Masaan special, and a similar gaze at life and hope can be seen in Homebound as well. Pratik Shah’s cinematography uses shadows pretty extensively, and it sort of creates drama even in scenes that look naturally lit. Towards the end, when the on-road struggle begins, there are some really striking images, and that one aerial shot with street lights really stayed with me.

Ishaan Khatter as Shoaib Ali is actually in his zone in this film. Most of the characters played by Ishaan had that enthusiastic, impulsive energy of a frustrated individual. Shoaib is also in a similar space in the initial patches. But like how Vicky Kaushal’s character in Masaan reaches a calmer realization towards the end, a similar evolution is happening to Shoaib, and Ishaan performed those bits superbly. The real surprise package here is Vishal Jethwa. He portrayed the innocence of the character Chandan in the best way. The fear and insecurities about the exam results, the shyness in love, and supportive mentality in the second half were performed really well by Vishal, and the way he made Chandan likable contributes to the pain the movie wants to create. Janhvi Kapoor’s character, Sudha, is more of an extended cameo who has significance in shaping the character of Chandan and, in turn, Shoaib. Janhvi was fine in that role, and I guess in between films like Param Sundari and Sunny Sanskari, something like Homebound would help her understand the “less is more” philosophy of performance. Shalini Vatsa as Chandan’s mother delivered a terrific performance. The way she breaks down at one point can make anyone teary-eyed.

Homebound is a well-written movie that captures the mindsets of characters and their desperation beautifully. Towards the end of the film, there are these moments that effectively capture the irony of life. Very rarely do scripts manage to make us backtrack all the things we saw in the initial portions of a movie in order to empathize with characters. Homebound is one such intense and melancholic drama that stays with you for some time. The only thing irritating about this movie is the verbal disclaimer at the beginning in Hindi and English, where the filmmakers are forced to say that the government authorities did a great job in handling the situations during COVID.