Homebound

Ghaywan gives the young men some moments of joy, laughter and even love -- Chandan and Sudha have a tentative romance -- but does not otherwise sugarcoat their despair. Their struggles are not romanticised, and when a dream does get fulfilled, it is too late, as if to say that the poor do not even have the right to better their existence. There is a marked lack of self pity or melodrama, but the simmering anger at the daily injustice they put up with is not suppressed or sanitised. The performances by Khatter and Jethwa are wonderfully empathetic. The fury, pain and hopelessness are expressed with a raw sincerity. Homebound is shot without any fake embellishment. Pratik Shah's camera is unflinching in showing the ugliness of the spaces the underprivileged are forced to inhabit. The film is deeply moving and the director's view of social reality is profoundly compassionate.

HOMEBOUND is a beautifully told story about the friendship between two young men striving to become police officers in modern-day India, hoping to build better lives for themselves & their families. The performances from Vishal Jethwa, and particularly Ishaan Khatter, are deeply affecting, eliciting more than a few tears in the emotional final act. While this gem of a film occasionally veers into overt melodrama, it remains a powerful look at the struggle for survival & the enduring power of hope in a competitive & unjust world.

But none of these are deal breakers, because Ghaywan, backed by Dharma Entertainment (producer credits shared between Karan Johan, Adar Poonawala, Apoorva Mehta, Somen Mishra, with an Executive Producer credit for Martin Scorsese) has crafted a film which is urgently, cracklingly contemporary, speaking of and to an India where the advantage of birth and religion has unfairly deprived a whole section of its citizens from benefits most of us take for granted. Both Khatter and Jethwa are excellent, with the latter feeling closer hewn to his character, but both making us believe that they’ve been old friends in the way they routinely sling their hands around each other’s shoulders as both affection and support.