Essay Archives - Page 14 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 Chandan, quiet and withdrawn, is the boy who never raised his hand in class, who always chose silence.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

Exploring Intersectionality in a Comedic World of ‘Tangerine’ (2015)

Exploring Intersectionality in a Comedic World of ‘Tangerine’ (2015)

July 15, 2024

Purusharth Chawla

Selling Out - How ‘American Fiction’ Recalls Spike Lee's ‘Bamboozled’ While Sanitizing its Subversive Edge

Selling Out – How ‘American Fiction’ Recalls Spike Lee’s ‘Bamboozled’ While Sanitizing its Subversive Edge

July 13, 2024

The Count of Monte Cristo (2024)

The Count of Monte Cristo (2024): Action and Emotion – How to Find the Right Balance?

July 10, 2024

Joséphine des Aulnois

Chandu Champion: Kartik Aaryan Transforms Himself in This Tale of Indian Sisyphus

Chandu Champion: Kartik Aaryan Transforms Himself in This Tale of Indian Sisyphus

July 8, 2024

“Less of a Man”: Why We Need More Narratives Like ‘Baby Reindeer’ and ‘May December’?

“Less of a Man”: Why We Need More Narratives Like ‘Baby Reindeer’ and ‘May December’?

June 28, 2024

Lost in Translation- How Anatomy of a Fall Captures the Difficulty of Representing Reality

Lost in Translation: How “Anatomy of a Fall” Captures the Difficulty of Representing Reality

June 22, 2024

David Lobzhanidze

Paris is Burning: The Search for Freedom in Overlapping Systems of Oppressions

Paris is Burning: The Search for Freedom in Overlapping Systems of Oppressions

June 19, 2024

Purusharth Chawla

The Next Big Monster: Why We Should Be Excited About the Upcoming Nosferatu (2024) Remake?

The Next Big Monster: Why We Should Be Excited About the Upcoming Nosferatu (2024) Remake?

June 4, 2024

Joséphine des Aulnois

Furiosa box office

Why Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is Bombing at the Box Office (And Why It Doesn’t Matter)

May 31, 2024

Adil Rahim Hyder

Still Relevant After All These Years: How "Reality Bites" Captures 90s Nostalgia and Gen X Struggles

Still Relevant After All These Years: How “Reality Bites” Captures 90s Nostalgia and Gen X Struggles

May 28, 2024

Is Political Cinema Empowering or Manipulating the Indian Voter?

May 21, 2024

Dekalog II

Dekalog II: Extraordinary Situation of Ordinary Lives

May 18, 2024

‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ (2022)

Column · Netflix · Streaming Now

Why is the Failure of ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ (2022) A Depressing Moment for Bollywood?

May 16, 2024

101 Years of Mrinal Sen: Remembering the Icon of Indian Political Cinema

101 Years of Mrinal Sen: Remembering the Icon of Indian Political Cinema

May 14, 2024

Balachandran Chirammal

The Profound, Moving Bittersweetness of ‘Perfect Days’

May 12, 2024

Debopriyaa Dutta

Kiran Rao’s ‘Laapataa Ladies’ Walks, so Indian Feminism can Run

May 8, 2024

Toxic Disney Superstardom and ‘The Lizzie McGuire Movie’

Essay

Toxic Disney Superstardom and ‘The Lizzie McGuire Movie’

Jeffrey Davies April 19, 2024

How ‘The Exorcist’ Established its Status as an Enduring Horror Classic

Essay

How ‘The Exorcist’ Established its Status as an Enduring Horror Classic

Arun Kumar July 14, 2023

How “Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse” challenges the very identity of Spider-Man and its intersectionality

Essay

How “Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse” challenges the very identity of Spider-Man and its intersectionality

Amartya Acharya July 22, 2024

Essay · Fan Blog

From Guatemala to Hollywood: A Profile of Oscar Isaac

Jerry Horne July 19, 2023

Transcending Boundaries: Tarkovsky’s Fusion of Style and Substance

Essay

Transcending Boundaries: Tarkovsky’s Fusion of Style and Substance

Kishore Karanam June 13, 2023

Succession: The Psychology of the Roy Family

Essay

Succession: The Psychology of the Roy Family

Georgia May June 13, 2023

Succession & The Brilliant Execution of Inevitability: How This Prestige Drama’s Overarching Themes Came Full Circle in Its Final Episode

Essay

Succession & The Brilliant Execution of Inevitability: How This Prestige Drama’s Overarching Themes Came Full Circle in Its Final Episode

Aryan Vyas June 10, 2023

Hey Ram (2000): The Art of Semi-fiction

Essay

Hey Ram (2000): The Art of Semi-fiction

Gitesh Chand Maurya June 9, 2023

Tangled in Nostalgia’s Embrace: Boys Over Flowers’ Struggles Against Sands Of Time

Essay

Tangled in Nostalgia’s Embrace: Boys Over Flowers’ Struggles Against Sands Of Time

Sanghavi P.S May 28, 2023