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Movie Name: Homebound
Directed by: Neeraj Ghaywan
Starring: Vishal Jethwa, Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor, Harshika Parmar
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Release Date: 26 September, 2025
Rating:
Languages: English
Production House: Dharma Productions
Budget: $- million
Two friends from a North Indian village pursue police jobs seeking dignity, but their friendship strains as desperation grows in their quest.
Homebound: Movie Overview
Homebound is a 2025 Indian Hindi-language drama film written and directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, and produced by Karan Johar, Adar Poonawalla, Apoorva Mehta and Somen Mishra under the banner of Dharma Productions. The film an adaptation of a New York Times article by Basharat Peer from 2020, stars Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor. It follows two childhood friends, who attempt to pass the national police exam.
The film had its premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard on 21 May 2025.
It is scheduled to release theatrically on 26 September 2025.
The film’s original story was inspired by the New York Times 2020 essay Taking Amrit Home (now retitled A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway by Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer. It recounts the story of two young migrant workers in Surat, who were caught in the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020.
Two childhood friends from a small village in North India dream of becoming police officers, hoping the job will bring them the respect they never had. However, as they come closer to their goal, pressure and struggles create problems in their friendship.
Homebound premiered on 21 May 2025 at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in France. It will close Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2025.
The film was also selected at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in Gala Presentation and was screened on 10 September 2025.
Movie Trailer:
Movie Review:
Neeraj Ghaywan applies balm on the cracked heels of a world pulling apart
Lit up by endearing performances of Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa, the uplifting friendship drama, set against an environment of social mistrust and a notorious virus, is a significant document of our times
In May 2020, the newspaper image of a wiry Saiyub holding an unconscious Amrit in his lap on a scorched highway in Madhya Pradesh came across as an antidote to the raging virus. Fate has its own destiny. It was not just a melancholic picture of abiding friendship, Saiyub took Amrit home when a section of the media was projecting Muslims as super spreaders. Journalist Basharat Peer tracked the story of two friends to their village in eastern Uttar Pradesh for The New York Times.
Five years later, in Homebound, writer-director Neeraj Ghaywan takes away the exactitude of the Op-ed essay and turns it into a deeply immersive and emotionally resonant cinematic experience, that is both specific to the pandemic and universal in its tone and tenor. It talks of the caste and religious discrimination in society and, without getting didactic, shines a light on the migrant workers’ struggle during the ill-conceived lockdown.
Building on the information in Peer’s piece, Neeraj and his co-writers create the back stories of the boys before arriving on that baked highway where their dreams are crushed. In his slice of life, Saiyub and Amrit are Shoaib and Chandan, two impoverished youth desperate to lift their respective families out of poverty. Shoaib wants his ailing farmer father treated. Chandan wishes he could apply balm on the cracked heels of his construction worker mother after building a house with a cement roof for her. She could cook the mid-day meal at a government school, but the parents don’t want their children to eat the food she cooks. There is a stringent law against untouchability, but can it be implemented in the new India?
Neeraj, who emerged on the scene with Masaan (2015), once again captures the everyday experiences of subtle mistreatment, indignities, and slights that disadvantaged social groups face in society. Shoaib is reminded of his Muslimness, and Chandan’s Dalit identity is underlined on the streets, in offices, and in playgrounds. However, despite constant humiliation, both don’t give up on the idea of India..
Like millions of young, unemployed Indians, who seldom find a sincere representation in mainstream Hindi cinema, they want to join the police constabulary so that no one can tease them because of their identity. But, for the sea of hopefuls, appearing in the exam itself becomes a war, and waiting for the result becomes a punishment. Chandan makes the cut while Shoaib doesn’t, but both remain without a job.
Neeraj nurtures the story with subtle emotional realism, making us introspect about the dehumanising gaze of a section of society. Pratik Shah’s deft camera work evokes a sense of confinement, and the editing ensures that the nuanced performances by the ensemble generate a quiet intensity that deepens the impact of a familiar struggle.
Ishaan and Vishal create a believable picture of vulnerability, desperation, and survival. In his previous outings, Vishal showed a tendency to overemote, but here, as a follower of Bhimarao Ambedkar, he is quietly effective as a subdued Chandan. Ishaan is a natural, and their dynamic lingers.
While following the boys, Neeraj doesn’t lose sight of the strong women around them. Sudha Bharti (Janhvi Kapoor), a fellow traveller with Chandan, wants him to graduate and aim bigger. When Chandan complains about discrimination, his sister reminds him that she didn’t even have a choice to pursue education. His mother tells him that all she has inherited from her mother are the fissures in the heels. It is the resilience that shines through Homebound and hits home in Varun Grover and Shreedhar Dubey’s incisive words.
The film’s gaze and the matte finish sometimes give the proceedings the feel of an explainer on the fault lines in Indian society for a global audience. Towards the end, it appears that the complexity of Peer’s perspective has been papered over, perhaps to avoid censorship. For instance, the fact that Shoaib’s struggle with the arbitrariness of the lockdown continued even after the health department officials discovered them on the road has been glossed over.
Still, Homebound is a significant document of our times when social trust seems to be in a long-term decline and is a worthy bet for the elusive Oscar.
Movie Songs:
Song Title: Yaar Mere
Lyrics: Varun Grover
Music Composer: Amit Trivedi
Singer(s): Javed Ali and Papon
