Title: Homebound
Director: Neeraj Ghaywan
Solid: Vishal Jethwa, Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor
Author: Neeraj Ghaywan, Basharat Peer and Sumit Roy
Score: 4/5
Plot
Primarily based on a real story, Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound tells the story of Mohd. Shoaib Ali (Ishaan Khatter) and Chandan Kumar (Vishal Jethwa), two pals attempting to turn out to be police constables. However the actual battle isn’t simply clearing exams, it’s combating a system constructed on caste, faith, and limitless social prejudices. Their journey is about incomes dignity in a world that refuses to see past their surnames.
Set throughout the pandemic, the movie captures how desires conflict with harsh realities. Because the lockdown deepens isolation, friendships are examined, hope turns into fragile, and the query of id turns into heavier than ever.
What Works
The Nationwide award-winning director as soon as once more mixes social points with private storytelling in a method that hits exhausting. He makes use of on a regular basis pictures just like the empty highways, locked doorways, caged birds, to point out what exclusion seems like for the marginalised. Even one thing so simple as an software type marked with caste classes turns into a reminder of how unfair the system is.
The pandemic backdrop is particularly highly effective. Scenes of hospital chaos, funeral pyres, and the silence of isolation immediately take you again to these darkish days. Pratik Shah’s cinematography captures each the vacancy outdoors and the ache inside, making the movie really feel uncooked and actual.
What haunts you isn’t just the grief of shedding somebody, however how cruelly that loss arrives. And above all, the reminder that in our society, advantage is rarely sufficient when id decides your value.
What Doesn’t
At instances, the movie spells out its message a little bit too instantly as a substitute of letting the viewers really feel it. Sure supporting characters haven’t any context and some scenes really feel predictable.
Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa in a nonetheless from the movie:
Performances
Ishaan Khatter shines with a uncooked, intense efficiency as Shoaib, carrying his bruised satisfaction and vulnerability. Vishal Jethwa makes Chandan’s desires tender and tragic; you possibly can’t assist however root for him. Collectively, their bond feels so actual that even the smallest rift between them stings.
Janhvi Kapoor, as Sudha Bharti, provides a comforting heat to the narrative, providing moments of sunshine in an in any other case heavy story.
Ultimate Verdict
Homebound isn’t just a movie; it’s an emotional punch to the intestine. It forces you to confront painful truths about society whereas making you relive the heartbreak of the pandemic. Transferring, thought-provoking, and unforgettable, it leaves you teary-eyed lengthy after the credit roll. The movie is scheduled for a theatrical launch on September 26, 2025. And, sure, the 7-minute standing ovation on the Cannes Movie Pageant feels justified.
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