In Homebound, director Neeraj Ghaywan wants viewers to look beyond a simple villain-and-victim story and see people shaped by circumstance. His question—what if we practise empathy and listen to the other side?—is the film’s guiding intention, not a promise that empathy alone can undo discrimination or that every viewer will respond in the same way.
What is Homebound about?
The film follows two childhood friends from a small North Indian village who pursue police jobs in the hope of gaining dignity. As their goal comes closer, desperation threatens their friendship. The Festival de Cannes lists Homebound as an Indian film with a runtime of 119 minutes; it identifies 2024 as the production year and includes the film in its 2025 Un Certain Regard selection. Cannes’s official listing names Ishaan Khatter as Mohammed Shoaib Ali, Vishal Jethwa as Chandan Kumar, and Janhvi Kapoor as Sudha Bharti.
Why does Ghaywan ask viewers to listen to the other side?
In a May 22, 2025 interview with Scroll, Ghaywan explained that he did not want to assign easy moral labels to people in conflict. “My intention is never to point daggers at people or call this one a villain and that one evil. People are all victims of circumstances. It’s not about ideology or community. It’s actually people failing people. What if we practise a bit of humanity and empathy and listen to the other side? That was the whole intent.”
His approach shifts attention from judging characters at a distance to following their individual journeys. In the same interview, he described asking: “What if we actually pick two people from that and see their journeys so that we see the human side? Maybe we’ll start empathising.” The film’s focus on two friends gives that idea a human scale: viewers encounter choices and pressures through particular lives rather than an abstract argument about a community.
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That is Ghaywan’s stated aim, not evidence that empathy by itself resolves structural discrimination, nor a claim that a film can represent every experience. The invitation is to listen closely enough to understand people without confusing understanding with excusing harm.
How does Ghaywan connect the story to his own perspective?
Ghaywan has linked the film’s perspective to his experience of growing up in a Dalit home. The official film site says his background shaped his worldview and cinema. These are personal reflections, not a basis for generalizing about all Dalit lives or communities.
He has also described visiting villages to experience the places where the story is set and using an immersive exercise with the actors. In a Festival de Cannes retrospective published March 25, 2026, he reflected: “It reminded me that to make a film is to shed light on other peoples’ realities, and this must be approached with respect.” Immersion is part of his reported process; it does not, on its own, establish that the film speaks for every community or circumstance.
What are the film’s story and screenplay credits?
Scroll reports that Homebound adapts a 2020 New York Times article by Basharat Peer. The official film site credits the story to Basharat Peer, Neeraj Ghaywan, and Sumit Roy, and the screenplay to Ghaywan. Those credits establish the named contributors without specifying a more exact degree of adaptation.
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Where can you watch Homebound?
The official film site’s “Watch Now” link leads to Netflix. Netflix availability can vary by country and change over time, so check the film’s listing in your local Netflix catalogue for current access.
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