Homebound movie review: Worldbound, and rightly so!

HomeboundDirector Neeraj GhaywanActors Ishaan Khatter Vishal Jethwa Janhvi KapoorRating 45The starting point of this film Irsquom told was once a photograph doing the rounds on social media Which led journalist Basharat Peer to dive deeper into its origins and write a piece for the opinion page of The New York Times NYTIt was titled Taking Amrit Home datelined July 31 2020 Devari village IndiaIf you arenrsquot into viewing trailers of films yoursquore gonna watch anyway mdash the first impression of a movie is also usually a picture That is its posterIn this case of actor Vishal Jethwa piggybacking on the fellow lead Ishaan Khatter while theyrsquore presumably on a playing field mdash pointing their forefingers upwards as if having dismissed a batter in cricketEither my memory doesnrsquot serve me right for reasons that therersquos so much to remember about this film mdash I donrsquot think that scene exists as is in the picture per seBut the same shot over a long passage in an altogether different setting acquires a completely different meaningsignificance as you step out of this filmIt could move you to tears or itrsquoll trigger thoughts about a human tragedy that people in general I notice have collectively repressed I guess thatrsquos how we move on for better or worse It helps sometimes to poignantly pause and ponderThere are also various images in Homebound that draw you in the same wayConsider in particular the camera unsparingly staring at the face of young Ishaan while his eyes well up and face lights up from the computer screen where hersquos searching for the results of a police recruitment examThat lingering static shot achieves more depth in a few seconds than most actors might deliver through an entire movieTake a relatively more unsubtle sequence if you may Wherein Ishaanrsquos character finds himself getting lowkey trolled at an office party celebrating victory in an IndiaPakistan cricket matchThe lightly dramatic crescendo in that scene where he eventually pushes back is for keeps Ishaan is easily the star on this show right off a regal pinuprsquos part in the Netflix series The RoyalsHe plays an underprivileged Muslim youth Mohd Shoaib trapped in a cycle of rejection and unemployment Likewise his best friend forever Chandan Kumar Vishal powerfully restrained belongs to the Dalitlsquountouchablersquo casteBoth define brotherly love and friendship that make life somewhat bearable Everything else in their world mdash job exams relationship mdash seems equated to ldquowarrdquo As if struggles and dejection from lack of hope for a better future isnrsquot terrible enough mdash they go through humiliation on account of their religioncaste alongside I suppose discrimination of some sort or the other is as old as humansWhatrsquos a personal antidote to it Unpretentious art and smartly crafted storytelling I suppose Nothing combines both as effectively as the empathygenerating cinemaTake the intellectual impact of Basharatrsquos piece on BFFs Mohd Saiyub 22 and Amrit Kaur 24 in the NYT Just compare it to director Neeraj Ghaywanrsquos gutwrenchingly emotional viscerally stirring scriptfilm inspired by itTheyrsquore miles apart Yoursquoll know the difference This is Ghaywanrsquos second feature since his notable debut Masaan 2015 a decade ago Which as a story was much broader in scope with Banaras in the centreItrsquos still hard for me to forget the evocative opening sequence of Masaan with cops breaking into a motel and a couple inside caught in a privateintimate moment It hit you like a hammer in Dolby soundIrsquom gonna equally remember the quiet introductory scene of Homebound with Shoaib and Chandan stepping into a railway station crowded with young people As if heading to a pilgrimage or a concert same thingThey meet another young girl Sudha Bharti Janhvi Kapoor sufficiently convincing in a short role Only this is a vast pool of competitive hopefuls for a comparably lowly job in the constabularyWersquove readheard such statistics as we do in this pic that 25 million apply for 35000 vacant seats Somehow putting faces to those numbers makes it immediately realFor what exit route does one have to escape the ignominy of caste even religion language gender for that matter in the case of the girl and the boys than to find some space in the societyrsquos power structure after all Government jobs seamlessly offer thatFew Indian directors have shone a harsher light on caste than Neeraj including his short film Geeli Pucchi from the Netflix anthology Ajeeb Daastaans 2021Especially given how caste has been a blindspot in Hindi cinema over a century with few fine exceptions What with mainstream heroes traditionally surnamed Kumar to altogether avoid a touchy subjectGeneric Kumar is also what the lead Vishalrsquos character goes by No such luck for Shoaib who takes up a salesmanrsquos job in Homebound hawking a waterpurifier that as a contraption looks quite similar to what Will Smith struggles to sell in The Pursuit of Happyness 2006Whatrsquos compellingly common between the two films is how effortlessly they make audiences conscious of their own privileges Also engagingly read entertainingly mdash in ways that few things can in about two hours flatFor what might be the second time after Amit Masurkarrsquos Newton 2017 that itrsquos happened right before a moviersquos release mdash Homebound got picked as Indiarsquos official entry to the lsquoBest International Filmrsquo OscarsWhich basically means merely one thing That a jury across multiple languages deemed it the yearrsquos best Indian film thus far Think I agree