Essay Archives - Page 10 of 42 - High On Films

‘King & Conqueror’ and the Long Shadow of ‘Game of Thrones’

‘King & Conqueror’ and the Long Shadow of ‘Game of Thrones’

October 9, 2025

Jugnuma 2025

Who Owns Nature? ‘Jugnuma’ and the Politics of Ecological Memory

October 9, 2025

Prerna Chatterjee

Between Surnames and Silences: The Unflinching World of Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Homebound’ (2025) Chandan and Shoaib, the protagonists of Ghaywan’s world, stand at opposite poles-- the former, a Dalit man from a scheduled caste; the latter, an orthodox Muslim. Though they share little in common, they are bound together, ever-so-strongly, by an unrelenting desire to break free from the shackles imposed by society. Yet as the film unfolds, we realise that more than society, it is themselves they must escape from. In his relentless attempt at spotlighting pressing socio-economic realities, Ghaywan lays bare a blistering truth: a significant portion of one’s identity is predetermined at birth, with no room for choice. The rest of life becomes a sentence, a punishment-- a burden of carrying that truth until the very last day. What follows is a cruel decision: to fight for balance, or to conceal and retreat in order to survive. Both paths are unjust, yet both remain undeniable verities. What “Homebound” does effortlessly is interrogate identity, religion, and caste erasure through a deeply personal, juxtaposed lens. Its characters do not merely wear these labels; they live and breathe them each day. For those born with higher immunities, such hierarchies might appear to matter only when filling out forms or applying for jobs. Yet the film insists otherwise-- it roots discrimination in the most mundane acts: filling a water bottle, sharing a meal. In these banal moments, when surnames don’t align with the standards, one is made distinctly aware of exclusion. Several poignant moments highlight this duality-- the two-edged sword of identity. To reveal or not to reveal. That is the question. The stark dichotomy emerges in the mindsets of Chandan and Shoaib. Chandan, quiet and withdrawn, is the boy who never raised his hand in class, who always chose silence. On official forms, he ticked the “General Quota” box despite belonging to a Scheduled Caste-- shielding himself from torture and name-calling at his university or police job. So fearful of revealing his surname, he often erased the question altogether, retreating into half-truths. The tremor in his voice-- brought to life brilliantly by Vishal Jethwa-- betrayed his terror at disclosing who he truly was. To survive, he would dismiss caste inquiries by calling himself a Brahmin or restricting himself to just his first name. His lover, Sudha, captures the futility of such concealment when she tells him: “Even if we end up with the same job, the same uniform, solving the same problems, we’ll still eat on the floor while they sit on high-chairs. That is why I carry my own chair wherever I go.” Do Check Out: Homebound (2025) ‘Cannes’ Movie Review: Neeraj Ghaywan’s Sophomore Feature Continues His Caste Examination With A Classically Dramatic Touch Shoaib, on the other hand, is Chandan’s opposite. Proud, outspoken, and uncompromising, he wears his religion and identity on his sleeve. He refuses to conceal his Muslim background, never bowing under pressure. But his courage comes with a cost. He is met with intensified discrimination and hostility. His senior refuses to let him touch his water bottle, insisting he will fill it himself. At work, he is asked to provide unnecessary documents, subjected to repeated background checks designed to exhaust him. At a corporate party, he is mocked as a Pakistani sympathiser, handed Lahori Korma to taste because, of course, he would “know how it should be cooked.” What begins as playful banter descends into humiliation so deep that Shoaib quits his respectable job and accepts a demotion he never wanted. The two men embody opposing strategies for survival: Chandan hides and climbs the ladder, Shoaib reveals and slips down it. Yet Ghaywan’s message is stark: neither path leads to liberation. Our society has made existence itself a curse, forcing individuals into impossible binaries: reveal or conceal, fight or retreat. Whichever choice you make, the cost is unbearable. We impose so many labels, standards, and hierarchies that embracing difference feels like an affliction. The film suggests we are inching toward a dystopia of uniformity, where everyone becomes a puppet, a cog, a robot. This despair resonates most vividly in the film’s pandemic sequences. Survival is not simply about resilience… It’s about origins, surnames, and connections. Aid is rationed according to where you come from and who you are. While the wealthy remain shielded in their mansions or travel in SUVs, the poor trudge on foot from village to village, changing transport endlessly, only to suffer most despite having laboured hardest. Their surnames lack weight; their identities offer no shield. And yet, even in this climate of abandonment, they find refuge in each other. What society denies them in dignity, they reclaim in companionship. At every turn, life hurls another curveball: brief moments of fortune followed swiftly by storms. The narrative’s peaks and troughs leave the audience breathless, aching with the heaviness of not belonging. There is not a single setting in which the weight of their identities did not bear down on them, except when they are in each other’s presence. Only there is a certain sense of unconditionality, where differences dissolve and only solidarity remains. “Homebound” ultimately uncovers two profound truths. The first is that living in a society that prides itself on being liberal, diverse, and democratic is an unrelenting battle, because beneath the rhetoric, it remains chained to hierarchies of religion, caste, and identity. The film reveals how difficult it is to simply exist when your very name, your faith, or the community you belong to becomes a marker that others use to discriminate against you. There is no neutral ground, no win-win situation in a world where the baggage of identity follows you everywhere. And yet, the film also insists on something softer, something hopeful. Even when society erases you, strips you of the weight of your surname or background, some bonds cannot be reduced to labels. There is a space where friendship, loyalty, and chosen family create a home untouched by prejudice. That’s where “Homebound” lingers… in the tension between erasure and belonging, between bitterness and tenderness. It shuns the cruelty of systems that divide, while at the same time reminding us of the beauty of bonds that heal, protect, and endure. Also Read: A Humanistic Mirror to India’s Fault Lines: Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Homebound’ Homebound (2025) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia, Letterboxd

Between Surnames and Silences: The Unflinching World of Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Homebound’ (2025)

October 4, 2025

Rhea Raj Shinde

The Last Frontier Is Us: What ‘Eddington’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ Say about Survival in the Current Global Order

The Last Frontier Is Us: What ‘Eddington’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ Say about Survival in the Current Global Order

October 3, 2025

Summer of Superman: How James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ (2025) Reminds Us of The Man of Tomorrow’s Power

October 2, 2025

Columns

A Poetic Portraiture of The Working-class Women in Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light’ - hof

A Poetic Portraiture of The Working-Class Women in Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light’

January 8, 2025

Soumalya Chatterjee

Ryusuke Hamaguchi Evil Does Not Exist

Streams of Consequence: Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Meditation on the Environmental Loss in ‘Evil Does Not Exist’

January 6, 2025

Blink Twice (2024)

Why ‘Blink Twice’ (2024) is a Bold but Flawed Exploration of Power, Revenge, and Feminism?

January 4, 2025

Movies, TV Shows, Books - Maid

Calling the Spade on Motherhood: 7 Watches and a Read to Cope With the Realities of Being a New Mother

January 2, 2025

Nikita Naiknavare

Dabangg: Understanding The World of Chulbul Pandey

December 27, 2024

Reubyn Coutinho

Tangerine (2015)

Tangerine (2015): Celebrate Christmas with this Not-So-Typical Holiday Flick

December 25, 2024

Anora Sean Baker

Sex, Power, and Representation: Analyzing Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’ Through Feminist and Auteur Lenses

December 23, 2024

One Hundred Years of Solitude

A Half-Hearted Endeavor: The Struggle to Portray the Kaleidoscope of Realism in Netflix’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’

December 23, 2024

Soumalya Chatterjee

25 years of Blair Witch Project

26 years of The Blair Witch Project: A Convention-Breaker that Banked on Fear that Crawled into Your Psyche

December 20, 2024

A still from Mirch Masala (1987)

Dirge of Resistance: Unveiling Patriarchy and Power in ‘Mirch Masala’ (1987)

December 13, 2024

Soumalya Chatterjee

Watchmen 2009

Watchmen: The Often-Overlooked Differences Between Zack Snyder’s Movie and Alan Moore’s Graphic Novel

December 3, 2024

Coralie Fargeat The Substance

From Cannes to the Commons: Why Fargeat’s ‘The Substance’ Reflects The Liberal Paralysis?

November 30, 2024

Meiyazhagan

How Prem Kumar’s ‘Meiyazhagan’ Offers a Heartfelt Journey of Rediscovery, Connection, and Healing?

November 25, 2024

Serendipity

A Perspective on Fate, Chance, and Meaningful Connections in ‘Serendipity’ (2001)

November 22, 2024

Janani Vaiyapuri

National Awards - The Kashmir Files

The Decline of Integrity in National Film Awards: Politics, Controversies, and Compromised Excellence

November 21, 2024

Santosh Kumar Mamgain

Death Becomes Her

Death Becomes Her: How The OG ‘Substance’ Succeeds Where its Successor Falters

November 20, 2024

Jamie Carlstrand

Adulthood is Learning Vulnerability: An Analysis of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Essay

Adulthood is Learning Vulnerability: An Analysis of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Beatrice Gangi October 7, 2023

Concept, Rhythm, and Horror: Oppenheimer as an Accumulation of Nolan’s Filmography

Essay

Concept, Rhythm, and Horror: Oppenheimer as an Accumulation of Nolan’s Filmography

Aadesh Gupta August 21, 2024

A Quest for Home in Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Autumn Sonata’

Essay

A Quest for Home in Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Autumn Sonata’

Sayan Dutta September 5, 2023

Why is ‘The Black Cauldron’ Disney’s Missed Horror Masterpiece?

Essay

Why is ‘The Black Cauldron’ Disney’s Missed Horror Masterpiece?

Beatrice Gangi September 5, 2023

Revelation as Paradox: Oppenheimer and the Criticality of Scientific Reason

Essay

Revelation as Paradox: Oppenheimer and the Criticality of Scientific Reason

Shaswata Ray August 21, 2024

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022): Embark On A Scenic Trip Into The Marshland With Kya

Essay

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022): Embark On A Scenic Trip Into The Marshland With Kya

Poonam Vaze August 31, 2023

25 Years Later: Love, Politics, and Identity in Dil Se

Essay

25 Years Later: Love, Politics, and Identity in Dil Se

Shivani Muralikrishna August 21, 2023

American Prometheus: The Triumph of Oppenheimer’s (2023) Screenplay is in Exposing the Failure of Dr. Oppenheimer

Essay

American Prometheus: The Triumph of Oppenheimer’s (2023) Screenplay is in Exposing the Failure of Dr. Oppenheimer

Ashwani Kumar March 11, 2024

Is ‘Taxi Driver’ A Feminist Tale?

Essay

Is ‘Taxi Driver’ A Feminist Tale?

Michael Thomas September 28, 2023