Two childhood friends from a village in North India are desperate to join the police. Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter) and Chandan (Vishal Jethwa) are gutted when the recruitment process is indefinitely delayed.

They aren’t generic strivers. Their social background makes all the difference between how far they can go and where they eventually land up. The young men – one a Muslim, the other a Dalit – know that even a lowly constable has greater mobility, respect and legitimacy than them. A friendship that is affected by divergent experiences is severely tested by the coronavirus pandemic.

Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound is a sobering, thought-provoking film about the unacknowledged complexities of aspiration in a rigidly stratified country like India. As Shoaib and Chandan join the cutthroat race f

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