September 27, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan
Hindi with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in India in 2020, the dramatic film “Homebound” (inspired by a true story) features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Two underprivileged best friends—one who’s a Dalit Hindu, and one who’s a Muslim—have goals to raise their status in society by becoming police constables, but they encounter various obstacles and prejudices along the way.
Culture Audience: “Homebound” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and emotionally impactful dramas about friendships and social mobility.
“Homebound” strikes the right balance between showing how prejudices can affect everyday lives and making social commentary that isn’t a lecture. The acting performances are exemplary in this meaningful drama about friendship that defies bigotry. The movie’s tearjerking moments look emotionally authentic, not melodramatic.
Written and directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, “Homebound” is based on journalist Basharat Peer’s 2020 New York Times essay “Taking Amrit Home,” which was retitled “A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway.” “Homebound” had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and its North American premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. “Homebound” (which has Martin Scorsese as an executive producer) is India’s official entry for Best International Feature Film for the 2026 Academy Awards.
“Homebound” begins by showing the close relationship of best friends Chandan Kumar (played by Vishal Jethwa) and Mohammed Shoaib Ali (played by Ishaan Khatter), who are in their late teens and have been friends since childhood. Chandan and Shoaib (as he prefers to be called) come from financially struggling families in a small town in northern India. Chandan is more of a romantic dreamer, while Shoaib is a practical realist who has great sales skills.
By a bigoted society’s standards, Chandan and Shoaib shouldn’t be friends. Chandan is a Hindu from the lower-level Dalit caste. Shoaib is a Muslim in an area where Muslims are a minority. However, the “outsider” status of Chandan and Shoaib is part of the reason why they’ve bonded. The two friends also have a passion for playing cricket.
Chandan and Shoaib both have the same goals to become police constables, in order to elevate their social standings and to financially help their families, who are loving and supportive of each other. Chandan lives with his mother Phool Jumar (played by Shalini Vatsa), his father Avdesh Kumar (played by Dadhi R. Pandey) and Chandan’s sister Vaishali Kumar (played by Harshika Parmar), who works as a nanny and housekeeper. Avdesh finds work when he can, usually doing menial jobs such as working in fabric mills.
Shoaib lives with his mother Shanoz Ali (played by Sudipta Saxena) and his father Hassan Ali (played by Pankaj Dubey), who uses a wheelchair. Instead of going to college, Shoaib has been working in low-paying jobs to help support his family. His sales skills get noticed by business managers, even though Shoaib has his heart set on becoming a police constable.
Shoaib gets an offer to go to Dubai to become a salesperson fora major company, as well as an offer to work as an administrative assistant in the sales department for an appliance company that’s closer to his home in India. Later in the movie, Hassan needs a knee operation that will cost ₹200,000. It’s an expense that the Ali family can’t afford and is the reason why Shoaib makes a certain decision about what type of job he will do to get the money for the operation.
The beginning of “Homebound” takes place in the first two months of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Chandan is a student at Central Institute of Arts and Culture, but he still wants to become a police inspector. Chandan and an intelligent schoolmate named Sudha Bharti (played by Janhvi Kapoor) begin dating and fall in love with each other, but this romance part of the movie isn’t as substantial as the friendship between Chandan and Shoaib. Sudha also comes from a working-class background and wants to improve her social standing by getting a job that requires a college degree. She has made it clear to Chandan that she only wants to marry a man who’s also a college graduate.
Being a police constable in India does not require having a college degree. Chandan and Shoaib both take a test for police academy admission at the same time. They also find out the results of the test at the same time. Without giving away too many details in this review, it’s enough to say that one of the friends gets accepted into the police academy, while the other does not. It puts a strain on their friendship.
“Homebound” has some unpredictable twists and turns to the story. By mid-March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the deaths of millions of people around the world and drastically changed the jobs and fortunes for ultod numbers of people. Chandan and Shoaib are two of the people who are directly affected by the pandemic in ways that are heart-wrenching and which altered their lives forever.
“Homebound” isn’t a completely depressing film. There are many moments of joy and camaraderie that show why Chandan and Shoaib have such a deep and sincere friendship. The heart and soul of the movie are the performances by Jethwa and Khatter in how they depict this real-life friendship, which goes through its share of ups and downs. Their acting makes this movie special instead of being “just okay” if “Homebound” had mediocre talent in the leading roles.
The movie’s cinematography and editing are also impressive, while the screenplay and direction are absorbing from beginning to end. “Homebound” has unflinching depictions of the various degrees of bigotry, from hateful violence, to cold dismissals, to casual insults that people want to pass off as jokes. The movie also shows thoughtful portrayals of the dilemmas many people have to leave their hometowns in order to find work to support a family, or stay closer to home and risk more financial instability. “Homebound” gives a very candid and unforgettable look at the toll that bigotry can take on humanity but also the strength that people can find in those whom they love.
Moviegoers Entertainment released “Homebound” in select U.S. cinemas on September 26, 2025, the same day that the movie was released in India.
