UNIFORM SOLIDARITIES

India’s Oscar entry is about two boys with dreams of becoming police constables, believing that the uniform will be their insurance against the everyday humiliation they are subjected to for their religion and caste

- NAMRATA JOSHI

NEERAJ Ghaywan’s Homebound revolves around the friendship between Mohammad Shoaib Ali (Ishaan Khatter) and Chandan Kumar (Vishal Jethwa), while also thoughtfully bringing the predicaments of the marginalised to the centre.

The film takes us through the ups and downs of the Shoaib-Chandan friendship as they chase their modest, shared dream of becoming constables in the police, believing that the uniform will be their insurance and assurance against the everyday humiliation they are subjected to for their religion and caste. In between their interminable struggles, they also steal some moments of relief in a game of cricket and bike rides to a sense of release and freedom.

Ghaywan is unwavering in chronicling the prejudices and, in the process, checks several pertinent boxes.

Right from the very first scene—with Shoaib and Chandan on their way to give the police recruitment exam—Ghaywan is acutely focused on bringing out the layers of oppression we are confronted with. Even the pandemic, the great equaliser in death, eventually came down the harshest on the poor and the migrants.