Homebound is India’s official entry to the Oscars 2026 in the Best International Film category. Big names like Martin Scorsese and Karan Johar back the movie. The movie is based on a true story, which appeared as an article in the New York Times (NYT) on July 31, 2020, titled ‘A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway’. It is written by Basharat Peer, a staff editor for Opinion, who is the author of “Curfewed Night,” a memoir of the conflict in Kashmir, and “A Question of Order: India, Turkey, and the Return of Strongmen.” Peer describes the connection that he made with the image, which was widely circulated on social media during the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic.
Basharat Peer writes in the article, “The gift of friendship and trust it captured filled me with a certain sadness, as it felt so rare. I felt compelled to find out more about their lives and journeys”.
I watched Homebound last night, and it felt like the story of these two friends represented the India we live in. Unemployment, social injustice, gender discrimination, failed civic systems, corruption, all these and more get a space in the movie. At the core of the film is the friendship between Mohammed Shoaib Ali and Chandan Kumar, played by Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa. Janhvi Kapoor plays Chandan's love interest. Her character in the movie is not the glam doll kind of role she typically portrays. The film is just two hours long, but its impact will not fade for some time. Excellent photography and soft music complement the narrative, intensifying the experience.
Homebound is currently streaming on Netflix.
Reference
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/opinion/sunday/India-migration-coronavirus.html
No comments:
Post a Comment