Karan Johar (Producers) and Neeraj Ghaywan (director) film ‘Hombound’ received a tremendous welcome at the Debussian Theater on May 21 at the second most important section of the 78th Cannes Film Festival on 21 May. After the film’s performance, the audience stood up and clapped for ten minutes. Ishaan Khattar, Jahnavi Kapoor and Vishal Jethwa have played lead roles in the film.
Karan Johar’s company Dharma Production is the main producer of this film. The biggest thing is that Hollywood legendary filmmaker Martin Scarce is the Executive Producer of this film. He has highly praised the film and its director Neeraj Ghaywan. Referring to Neeraj Ghaywan’s previous film ‘Masaan’, he said that he understood at the same time that this young director has amazing talent.
In the Unit Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, ‘Masaan’ had a world premiere exactly ten years ago and received two awards. Now the film ‘Homebound’ is getting all -round praise. The director of the Canary Film Festival, Theory Frames and Deputy Director and Programming Head Cristian Jeanu came and congratulated Neeraj Ghaywan for the film. The film’s director Neeraj Ghaiwan, producer Karan Johar and lead actors Ishaan Khattar, Jahnavi Kapoor Vishal Jethwa etc. were present on the occasion of the film’s performance and saw the entire film with the audience.
What is the story of the film
‘Homebound’ is a story of shared grief, struggle and unmatched friendship of two friends living in a small village in a backward area of North India. Both friends are struggling with life on the last position of the society. Chandan Kumar (Vishal Jethwa) is a Dalit while Mohammad Shoaib Ali (Ishaan Khattar) Muslims. Both have to be humiliated and discriminated against the steps due to their caste. Both of them love their villages, society and country, so do not want to leave home to earn money.
Both are unable to complete further studies after intrormidiet. His last hope is that if he becomes a police constable, everything will be alright. Incidentally, Chandan passes the police recruitment examination and Shoaib fails. The parents of both are helpless. Sandalwood takes the examination in the general category in exchange for scheduled castes in the farm everywhere. He is afraid that if he is selected due to reservation, he will be treated like Dalits in his job.
The film begins with a huge crowd of boys and girls going to take the examination of police constable recruitment at a railway station where Chandan meets Sudha Bharti (Jahnavi Kapoor), a sensible girl of his own caste. In both, first friendship happens like love, but it breaks a little distance away. Sudha wants sandalwood to be somewhat capable by reading and writing, but sandalwood is helpful that she needs a job immediately for the family.
Sudha also tells Chandan that we have to get up from the sack and travel to the chair ourselves. On the other hand, while waiting for the appointment of the police constable, the sandalwood gets tired and starts working in Surat’s cloth mill. His mother’s school in school is missed because gold people object to feeding their children with the hand of a Dalit. In Surat, the heart is shaken after seeing the hellish life of migrant laborers. The only dream of sandalwood householders has to become a pucca house. Sandalwood sacrifices for this dream.
At the same time, Shoaib gets a peon’s job in a company selling a water cleaning machine. His officer, impressed by his talent, wants to promote him as a sales agent. But due to being a Muslim here too, he has to be humiliated by his own colleagues on his step. From this, the Aadhaar card and the police no objection certificate are sought again and again.
In one scene, we see that the owner of the company is so insulted by the final match of India-Pakistan cricket and being a Muslim at its party that his patience is broken and he leaves the job. He has taken a medical loan of two lakhs for his father’s knee operation. Destiny also takes him to Surat near Chandan.
Right now, sandalwood and Shoaib Mill are starting their new life of the laborers that due to Corona, the whole country gets lakdown. There is no option but to return home in front of these two. As they are returning home from a truck, sandalwood gets cough on the way and the rest of the passengers take both of them on the middle road for fear of Corona. Even after Shoaib’s lacquer attempts, Chandan breaks down after walking some distance. Her body wrapped in plastic comes home. Her bag will raise a print for Shoaib’s father and a pair of slippers for her mother as her legs have been injured by working in the fields barefoot.
In the final scene, we see that the pucca house of sandalwood has been built. A police jeep stops and stops. A soldier comes and captures Shoaib an envelope. When Shoaib opens the envelope, he finds that he has a government order to appoint a police constable for sandalwood.
Many scenes in the Housebound film are very touching. The helplessness of two youths and the destiny of struggle for life has been filmed with great condolences. The idea of justice and equality for everyone would have come out in the intensity of scenes. There is no slogans and discourse nor violence. It seems that our time for Shoaib, Chandan and Sudha has stood in front as a demonic villain. Ishaan Khattar, Jahnavi Kapoor, Vishal Jethwa and all other artists have acted very well.
The screenplay is very fit and keeps the audience tied. Whatever the director has said or tried to say is shown in scenes from the camera eye and at least in dialogues. When a stampede is caused by changing the platform of the vehicle suddenly at the railway station, Shoaib tells Chandan that ‘we are going to take the exam or fight the war.’ Actually, 25 lakh candidates are taking the exam for 3500 posts.
Similarly, when asked sandalwood at the police recruitment center, when the officer tells his caste Kayastha and gotra Bhardwaj, the Ghagh officer says that ‘wearing a lion’s skin does not make a jackal lion’. Shoaib’s father repeatedly asks him to go to Dubai, then Shoaib says – ‘The prayers of the ancestors are in these winds, how to leave it.’ A police officer makes fun of Dalits backward at one place and says – ‘Reservation people are eating nuts, we are alive only on Khurcha’.
When Sudha reaches Surat on Chandan’s birthday, she admits and says that ‘when I saw the father losing again and again, I started to compensate you.’ Sudha’s father was less than reading less, the linemen remained left for life. Police start beating Shoaib at one place in Surat due to being a Muslim. Chandan is hidden for some time and then comes out and tells the police his wrong name, Hasan Ali. The police also beat him. This is a partnership of friendship. In the final scene, Shoaib is sitting under the culvert outside the lost village in the memories of Chandan and is looking at the sky with a dry eye.
