Bound by Discrimination, ‘Homebound’ is a Dark Tale of an Ugly India
It is easy to review a badly made film. A reviewer’s armoury, much like a thousand eyes, is full of ballistic weapons to tear through a shoddy work. But every once in a while comes a film like Homebound that stumps you and instead of a critique you end up writing a love song about it.
Homebound is a language agnostic film, but since the backdrop is the Hindi heartland it will qualify as a Hindi movie. In that sense, it adds value to Hindi cinema with an immensely courageous theme that dares to expose all the fault-lines of the Indian society. It dares to enter a domain where the commercial, mainstream, escapist Hindi cinema fears to thread.
It tells the story of two friends, Mohammad Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter) and Chandan Kumar Valmiki (Vishal Jethwa) who represent what it means to be a Muslim and a Dalit in India. Both the friends have their own share of social inequity, lack of opportunities, unfulfilled dreams and the desire to break the unending cycle of injustices engulfing their youth. Both aspire for a little dignity in their lives, sadly beyond their reach.
Their friendship, unlike the Jai-Viru-esque Bollywood male bonding is grounded. They have a bond of friendship untouched by the toxicity engulfing their surroundings. They have their disagreements, disappointments but all that is transient – borne out of their frustrations and outweighed by their mutual affection beyond the binaries.
The duo are forced by circumstances to leave their native lands, work as labourers in an urban factory, and are at the threshold of a dignified existence… when COVID strikes. The ensuing lockdown leaves them with no option but to take an arduous journey back home.
Ishaan Khatter has delivered a stellar performance by embracing and remaining in the skin of his character, so has Vishal Jethwa. However, Ishaan’s emotionally-charged act at the loss of his friend was the high point of the film that may leave the audience in tears. Jahanvi Kapoor (Sudha) does well for her role but leaves no mark; her appearance is more as an attempt to add some glamour quotient to a theatrical release.
The film has successfully documents the havoc wreaked on the lives of migrant workers after the first COVID lockdown. The issues of caste, religion, gender, unemployment, migration, appalling apathy, lack of empathy –the film ticks all the boxes, but not the ones that a typical formula film would. It’s a much-needed reminder that holds a mirror to Bharat, in all its ugliness.
In the end, when you’re going through the credits, you notice that the Homebound team had Martin Scorcsese as the executive producer. His involvement in the film was kept a secret and he was simply referred to as the ‘elder brother’ on the sets. Of course, his mentorship added value to the film, but director, Neeraj Ghaywan and his team deserve a standing ovation for simply attempting to make this courageous film.
The credits will also tell you that the film is based on Basharat Peer’s New York Times story – on Mohammad Saiyub Siddiqui (Shoaib) and Amrit Prasad (Chandan), an excellent piece of journalism on the COVID lockdown and the toll it took on the marginalised.
‘Homebound’ brings Amrit and Saiyub’s friendship back to life through characters that are so beautifully written that one wonders: Did the real Saiyub and Amrit appear for the constabulary exams? Did Saiyub quit his sales job because of the Pakistani jabs hurled at him? Was Amrit ashamed of identifying himself as an SC quota candidate or did he have a ‘Sudha’ in his life? And when Amrit is dying, was he thinking about his mother’s cracked heels?
We don’t know if all of it really happened, but what we do know is that ‘Homebound’ represents the dreams and aspirations of millions of invisible Indians. Their dreams do take flight, only to come crashing at the behest of the privileged. It’s a commentary on sad rather tragic ways of Indian society, its inherent unfair practices and its polity.
Even though the film deserves accolades beyond the festival circuit, its box office performance turned out to be disappointing, amid the reports of the film struggling to get enough screens and non-grave-hour show-timings. This, despite the backing of Dharma Productions.
It may finally reach its rightful audiences with it being streamed on Netflix. The dismal performance at the Box Office will again give masala filmmakers an excuse and ammunition that Indian audiences are still not ready for such cinema, which could be true. And they will happily get the licence to keep producing below par escapist cinema. In the meanwhile with ‘Homebound’ Neeraj Ghaywan has set such a high bar for himself (after his debut film, ‘Masaan’) one only hopes that he can further keep raising it up.
