The Architecture of Apathy: A Cinematic Autopsy of Neeraj Ghaywan’s 'Homebound' (2025)

The Architecture of Apathy: A Cinematic Autopsy of Neeraj Ghaywan’s 'Homebound' (2025)

This essay forms part of a film screening assignment curated by Prof. Dilip Barad, focusing on Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound (2025). Rather than approaching the COVID-19 migrant crisis as a sudden or exceptional tragedy, the film situates it within a larger socio-political framework, exposing how the withdrawal of the state renders dignity, citizenship, and welfare fragile particularly for those whose labour is deemed expendable.

Film Details

Title: Homebound

Year of Release: 2025

Director: Neeraj Ghaywan

Languages: Hindi, Bhojpuri, Awadhi

Genre: Social Realism / Survival Narrative

Cast

• Vishal Jethwa as Chandan, a Dalit youth whose ambition to enter the police force reflects a tenuous claim to institutional respectability
• Ishaan Khatter as Shoaib, a Muslim aspirant to state service, negotiating marginality through the promise of official inclusion
• Janhvi Kapoor as Sudha Bharti, an Anganwadi worker positioned at the periphery of India’s welfare apparatus

Production Team

Executive Producer: Martin Scorsese

Producer: Karan Johar (Dharma Productions)

Screenplay: Neeraj Ghaywan, adapted from Basharat Peer’s 2020 essay “A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway”

Cinematography: Pratik Shah

Music: Naren Chandavarkar & Benedict Taylor

Editing: Nitin Baid

Synopsis

Homebound follows the lives of two young men from socially marginalized backgrounds whose pursuit of stability and recognition through state employment is abruptly shattered by the announcement of a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Stranded without institutional support, their journey home on foot transforms aspiration into a struggle for physical survival, revealing the conditional nature of citizenship and the ethical vacuum created when the state retreats from its responsibilities.

Introduction: The Film You Think You Know

Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound (2025) is far more than a chronicle of the COVID-19 pandemic; it is a clinical, yet deeply empathetic, autopsy of the modern Indian social fabric. Born from the intersection of Basharat Peer’s raw, ground-level reportage and the cinematic mentorship of Martin Scorsese, the film serves as a harrowing exploration of identity, the fragility of ambition, and the systemic "slow violence" that defines the lives of the marginalized.

This exhaustive guide provides a descriptive deep-dive into every facet of the film from its adaptive origins to its controversial reception serving as both a tribute to its artistry and a scathing critique of the systems it exposes.

On the surface, Neeraj Ghaywan’s critically acclaimed film Homebound appears to be another heart-wrenching story about the tragic migrant crisis that unfolded during India's COVID-19 lockdown. It follows two friends on a desperate journey home, a narrative that seems familiar to anyone who followed the news during that harrowing period. The film received standing ovations at Cannes and was even shortlisted for an Oscar, cementing its place as a significant piece of modern cinema.

But to dismiss Homebound as merely a 'lockdown film' is to ignore its true, unsettling genius, for the pandemic is not its antagonist it is its X-ray. It serves as a catalyst, stripping away society's thin veneer of civility to expose the pre-existing fractures of caste, religion, and systemic apathy. The film’s most powerful statements lie beneath the surface, revealing uncomfortable truths about ambition, the elusive nature of dignity, and the complex ethics of storytelling itself.

Part I: The Genesis - From Reportage to Narrative Cinema

1. The Source Material: Basharat Peer’s Journalism

The film’s DNA is rooted in Basharat Peer’s 2020 New York Times essay, “A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway” (originally titled Taking Amrit Home). In the original reportage, the subjects Amrit Kumar and Mohammad Saiyub were migrant textile workers in Surat. They represented the "invisible hands" that sustain India’s urban economy while remaining socially and politically ghost-like.

The Narrative Shift: From Labor to Law

Director Neeraj Ghaywan and screenwriter Sumit Roy made a transformative choice in the adaptation: they reimagined the protagonists, Chandan and Shoaib, not as laborers, but as aspiring police constables. This shift is descriptive of the "Indian Dream" of the 21st century.

• The Pursuit of Institutional Dignity: By shifting the goal from "earning a daily wage" to "earning a uniform," the film elevates the stakes from economic survival to a quest for social sanctity. In the Indian hinterland, a police uniform is not just apparel; it is a metaphysical shield. It is the only thing that can override the "ignominy" of a Dalit or Muslim identity. To wear the khaki is to become the State, thereby shielding oneself from the State’s own apathy.

• The Irony of the State: There is a profound, Shakespearean tragedy in watching these young men spend the first half of the film studying the law and training their bodies to join the very apparatus (the police) that will eventually be used to block their path home. The irony becomes a physical weight when, during the lockdown, they encounter the same police force they once idealized now viewing them not as citizens or candidates, but as a "logistics problem" to be managed with batons and barricades.

2. The Scorsese Influence: Mentorship and Realism

The presence of Martin Scorsese as an Executive Producer is more than a prestige credit; it is felt in the film's "realist" DNA. Scorsese mentored Ghaywan through three distinct cuts of the film, encouraging a version that remained "un-sanitized" for global consumption.

• Restrained Realism: Homebound avoids the "poverty porn" tropes of saturated misery. Instead, it employs a restrained, "street-level" realism reminiscent of Italian Neorealism. The camera does not pity its subjects; it observes them. The long, lingering takes on the highway and the refusal to use melodramatic musical cues create a sense of observational truth that is rare in contemporary Hindi cinema.

• The "Prestige Gap": This high-art approach helped the film secure standing ovations at prestigious festivals like Cannes and TIFF. However, it inadvertently created a "prestige gap." In the West, it was seen as a masterful social document; in domestic Indian markets, it was often dismissed as "festival cinema," highlighting a disconnect between the reality depicted and the audience's willingness to engage with it in a commercial theater setting.

Part II: Thematic Architecture - The Invisible Borders

1. The Politics of the "Uniform"

The first half of the film functions as a "coming-of-age" drama centered on the grueling, soul-crushing preparation for the police entrance exam.

• The Fragile Meritocracy: The film vividly portrays the "coaching center" culture, where millions of young men from rural India chase a handful of government jobs. The staggering statistic 2.5 million applicants for 3,500 seats is treated not just as a number, but as a deconstruction of the myth of "hard work." The film suggests that in a system so heavily skewed, meritocracy is a lottery that the poor are invited to play but never meant to win.

• Uniform as Identity Erasure: For Chandan (a Dalit) and Shoaib (a Muslim), the uniform represents the ultimate form of "passing." It is an attempt to rewrite their social script. If they wear the khaki, they are no longer defined by their caste or religion; they are defined by their rank. The film describes the uniform as a kind of "skin" that they hope will protect them from the "quiet cruelty" of their everyday lives.

2. Intersectionality: Caste, Religion, and "Micro-aggressions"

Homebound is perhaps the most sophisticated film in recent memory regarding the depiction of "micro-aggressions" the subtle, almost polite acts of exclusion that precede overt violence.

• Caste and the "General" Category: A particularly descriptive moment occurs when Chandan decides to apply in the ‘General’ category instead of the ‘Reserved’ category. This is an exploration of "caste shame." He fears that a "quota" seat would forever delegitimize his achievement in the eyes of his peers. It reveals the deep psychological toll of the anti-reservation rhetoric that permeates Indian middle-class discourse, forcing a Dalit man to compete on an "uneven" level field just to maintain a shred of self-respect.

• The Water Bottle Scene: In a scene that captures the "quiet cruelty" of religious segregation, a colleague refuses a water bottle from Shoaib. There is no shout, no physical strike, no slur. Just a silent, polite rejection based on a perceived notion of "purity." This moment describes how religious "othering" is maintained in modern, professional, and corporate spaces through the lens of traditional notions of pollution.

3. The Pandemic as "Slow Violence"

Sociologist Rob Nixon coined the term "slow violence" to describe catastrophes that occur out of sight and across time. The film uses the COVID-19 lockdown as the moment where this slow violence becomes "fast" and visible.

• Ghost Citizens: The migration sequence is not just about a virus; it is about a state that views its labor force as disposable. The lack of transport, food, and dignity during the long walk home is described as an escalation of the conditions they already lived in. The pandemic didn't create the injustice; it merely made the injustice impossible to ignore.
• Genre Transformation: The film masterfully shifts genres from a "Drama of Ambition" to a "Survival Thriller." This mirrors the characters' own loss of agency the moment they stop being "aspirants" and start being "migrants." Their identity shifts from "hopefuls" to "logistics" in the eyes of the state.

Part III: The Somatic and the Symbolic - Character Analysis

1. Vishal Jethwa as Chandan: The Body in Trauma

Vishal Jethwa’s performance is defined by a specific type of physicality that describes the internalized weight of oppression.

• The "Shrinking" Body: In the presence of authority figures or upper-caste characters, Chandan physically shrinks. His shoulders hunch slightly, his voice loses its resonance, and his eyes avoid direct contact. This is the "somatic memory" of the Dalit experience the body remembering its place in the hierarchy even when the mind tries to escape it through education.

• The Full Name Inquiry: When an official asks for his full name, Chandan’s hesitation is palpable. In the Indian context, a surname is a map of one's history and social standing. Jethwa plays this moment as a man trying to hide his map to avoid being "placed" and subsequently dismissed.

2. Ishaan Khatter as Shoaib: The Simmering Minority

Shoaib represents the minority citizen who is constantly, and unfairly, asked to prove his "belonging."

• The Choice of Home: Shoaib’s rejection of a lucrative job in Dubai to stay and serve in India is the film's core tragedy. He chooses a "home" that is increasingly suspicious of his presence.

• Simmering Angst: Unlike Chandan’s "shrinking," Shoaib’s trauma manifests as a simmering angst. Khatter portrays a man whose patience is being worn down by the constant "friction" of being an "other." He is a man who loves his country, but his country keeps asking for his ID.

3. Janhvi Kapoor as Sudha Bharti: The Educational Counterpoint

Sudha Bharti’s role has been debated by critics, with some calling her a "narrative device." However, her role is descriptive of the "way out" that is unavailable to the men.

• Privilege and Education: Sudha represents the "way out" through educational empowerment. Her character highlights that education is not a neutral tool; it is a privilege. Her stability makes the protagonists' struggle feel even more precarious, as she represents a world of dignity that they can see but cannot quite reach.

Part IV: Cinematic Language - The Aesthetic of Exhaustion

1. Visual Aesthetics: The Dusty Palette

Cinematographer Pratik Shah avoids the vibrant, saturated colors often associated with Indian cinema.

• Warm, Grey, and Dusty: The color palette reflects fatigue. The world of Homebound feels as if it is covered in the dust of the highway. It is an aesthetic of exhaustion where the landscape itself seems to be conspiring against the characters.

• Ground-Level Framing: The camera often stays low, focusing on feet, dirt, and sweat. This forces the audience to look at the parts of the human body that bear the brunt of systemic apathy.

• Visual Traps: Close-ups are used within the vastness of the highway to create a sense of claustrophobia. Even in the middle of a massive road, the characters are "trapped" by their identities and the lack of a path forward.

2. Soundscape: The Rejection of Melodrama

The score by Naren Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylor is a radical departure from traditional Bollywood scores.

• Minimalism as Power: The score is restrained, often disappearing entirely during the most tragic moments. By using silence or ambient environmental sounds the wind, the distant hum of trucks, the rhythmic sound of walking the film forces the audience to sit with the discomfort of the scene.

• Sound as Atmosphere: The sound design emphasizes the harshness of the environment. The heat of the Indian sun is "heard" through the buzzing of insects and the dry, rasping sound of the characters' breathing.

Part V: Critical Discourse - The Film in the Real World

1. The Censorship Battle

• The CBFC ordered 11 cuts, muting words like "Gyan" (knowledge) and removing references to "Aloo Gobhi."

• Anxiety of the State: These cuts are descriptive of a state that is uncomfortable with cinema reflecting a divided reality. Muting "Gyan" suggests an anxiety about the marginalized acquiring intellectual power. Removing food references hides the cultural markers of specific communities, attempting to "sanitize" the film's social commentary.

2. The Ethics of "True Story" Adaptations

• The film’s production was marred by a plagiarism suit and claims from the real-life family of Amrit Kumar.

• Extractive Filmmaking: The family’s claim that they were given only a pittance (Rs 10,000) while the film sought Oscar glory raises a massive ethical question. Are filmmakers "standing by the lives" they portray, or are they extracting tragedy for "critical prestige"? This controversy describes the inherent power imbalance in social-realist cinema.

3. Commercial Viability vs. Artistic Merit

The film was an Oscar entry but a "FLOP" at the box office.

The Post-Pandemic Market: This highlights a shift in Indian audience preference toward "Spectacle Cinema" (like RRR). "Serious" films are increasingly relegated to streaming platforms, losing the collective impact of the theatrical experience.

Conclusion: The Failed Journey Home

Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound concludes with the devastating realization that "home" is a conditional concept. For Chandan and Shoaib, the journey was never just physical. It was a metaphorical journey toward acceptance. The tragedy lies in the fact that the system functioned exactly as it was designed to: by keeping the "othered" citizen in a state of perpetual transit. Homebound leaves the audience with a haunting question: In a nation that fails its own, who is truly home?

References:

Barad, Dilip. (2026). Academic Worksheet on Homebound. 10.13140/RG.2.2.10952.99849. 

Homebound. Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, performances by Vishal Jethwa, Ishaan Khatter, and Janhvi Kapoor, Dharma Productions, 2025.

Peer, Basharat. "A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway." The New York Times Magazine, 25 May 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/opinion/sunday/India-migration-coronavirus.html.

"COVID-19 Lockdown in India." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_lockdown_in_India. Accessed 6 Jan. 2026.

"Caste System in India." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India. Accessed 6 Jan. 2026.

"Italian Neorealism." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_neorealism. Accessed 6 Jan. 2026.

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