 "'Homebound' Movie Review: Neeraj Ghaywan’s film starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa & Janhvi Kapoor on the politics of cast and faith deserves an Oscar")
Neeraj Ghaywan’s directorial Homebound starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor needs to be celebrated for its brilliant craftsmanship. The true story behind Neeraj’s ‘Homebound’ is inspired by a pandemic-era New York Times essay. He handled this delicate subject with utmost honesty, sensitivity and responsibility.
This film finds its roots in a poignant real-life story first told in a New York Times op-ed during India’s COVID-19 lockdown. Based on the friendship of the two boys Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter) and Chandan (Vishal Jethwa). It’s a film that chronicles the struggles and sorrows of two young adults, their shattered and unfulfilled dreams, caste differences, and undying passion for what they aspire for.
_Homebound_ throws light on the lives of Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter), a Muslim, and Chandan (Vishal Jethwa), a Dalit and how they aspire to be police trainees and how destiny shackles their spirit. Set in a small North Indian village, both the boys have their set of struggles in society and they are real. Things don’t get better for them even when they move to a town and they are humiliated because both of them belong to a certain caste and faith.
Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter), a Muslim boy is seen to be humiliated even at his workplace where a bunch of educated men try to put him down and refuse to drink water from his hand. He is made fun of, but yet he refuses to go to Dubai where he has already been offered a job by his father’s friend. He loves his country, but some men in his office are always there to question his honesty and credibility.
Homebound shows that life is no better for Chandan (Vishal Jethwa) either. He keeps hiding his surname in the fear that people are going to treat him with disrespect. He refuses to fill up the SC, ST section too for quota in various government services that he applies for. But both the friends aspire to become police officers.
When both Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter), a Muslim, and Chandan (Vishal Jethwa) migrate to a town to take up a daily labourer’s job, they are able to earn the money and send it back home. When things just start getting better, COVID hits and life takes a cruel one. Nobody was spared. But the worst affected were the migrant labourers.
While the urban, educated Indians were fortunate to stay safe at home, their journey was very different. In March 2020 when lockdown was enforced in India, all factories were shut, these two migrant workers, these two boys who were sharing a rented accommodation with very little savings, they didn’t know how they would reach home. But they were no longer in a position to pay the rent as well. They were just surviving on salt and rice. Chandan once told his friend Shoaib that in his dream he can only see biryani and how he is craving for it. He mentions to Shoaib that once he reaches home, that is the first dish that he is going to pounce on.
With public transport suspended and no access to train tickets, they eventually boarded a crowded truck headed for home. During the journey, Chandan, the Dalit boy played by Vishal Jethwa fell seriously ill and was unable to make it. Both Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa have done absolute justice to the role. The expressions of Ishaan when he is unable to save his friend will break your heart. He tries every possible thing to save him. He carries him on his back until he finally gets an ambulance. The saddest part is Chandan died due to dehydration and not COVID. As it is cast was a barrier for them, but then COVID became an even bigger barrier for humanity.
But the thing that you will carry back home from this film is that friendships are hard earned and they are real and that they don’t believe in caste or creed. They are each other’s support system. Chandan breathed his last in his friend’s arms. His friend didn’t abandon him. He tried to save him till the very end. Every expression of both Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa were so natural that you could feel each and every breath and every drop of tear rolling down their cheeks.
The camera work is brilliant and the way Neeraj Ghaywan has handled the subject, I don’t think anybody else could have done it any better. It is only Neeraj who could have done this film, because he himself never shied away from his Dalit identity. He brings out so well on the scenes in the film because, he has lived this life and can empathise with it. No wonder, he once said, “I wanted to call out my own self through this film.”
Rating: 4 and half out of 5
WATCH the trailer of Homebound here:
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