Till some years back, if someone asked me, what criteria I apply to a film to say that it moved me deeply, I would say, “I must begin to like it within the first 15 minutes of screening, then, I would need to carry the film with me outside the theatre to haunt me long after it was over and lastly, I would certainly try to catch the film again and again.”

After watching Neeraj Dhaywan’s Homebound I have added two more items to the above. These are – every single frame of the film should be read as a film unto itself and two, I should emotionally feel like I was a part of the film. So deep is the impact Homeland has made on me.

I am a high-caste Brahmin. In belief and in practice, I am not an agnostic at all. I am a believer who is also secular. Each one of these appears to have assumed very strong anti-Dalit and anti-minority connotations for all of us never mind if we are Dalit or migrant or belong to a minority community who live in the margins of society, work within extreme risks and lead inhuman lives away from their homelands and family.

Within this scenario, Homebound has made a very deep impact on my psyche for one, and underscored the power of cinema to haunt the audience, on the other. It demonstrates excellent technical command over the manner the story is told, the cinematography, the wide geographical ambiance spanning very uncertain and anxious times, the music, the editing and above everything else, the acting.

The term “homebound” does not have a dictionary meaning but in general terms, it perhaps signifies the inner desire of all migrants, irrespective of caste, creed, colour and race - to return, one day, to their native homes where their family lives, where they were born and brought up never mind even if it was in precariously deprived material conditions, by loving parents whose lives they promise to improve.

Homebound is based on a New York Times article Taking Amrit Home (now titled A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway) by Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer. in 2020 which means that the film is based on a true story which invests the film with both logic and authenticity.

Homebound, almost without being aware of it, spans a host of significant agendas the country is riddled though it is now more than 75 years since Independence.

If we still point fingers at the British, why do we, till today, find........

© Mathrubhumi English