Essay Archives - Page 22 of 42 - High On Films

When Gods Walk Among Men: The Living Spirit of ‘Kantara’

When Gods Walk Among Men: The Living Spirit of ‘Kantara’

October 11, 2025

‘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 Chandan, quiet and withdrawn, is the boy who never raised his hand in class, who always chose silence.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

Columns

The Flash DC

How ‘The Flash’ Resets DC Extended Universe To Make Way For Gunn’s DC Universe?

August 11, 2023

Abhishek Sharma

Love and Longing in ‘Sunday’ and ‘My Mother’s Girlfriend’

August 11, 2023

Rituparna Sengupta

An Exercise in Discipline Peel (1982)

Penetrating the Patriarchy and Exploring the (Lack of) Feminine in An Exercise In Discipline: Peel (1986)

August 8, 2023

Pritha Banerjee

Franz Rogowski & Adèle Exarchopoulos in Ira Sachs Passages 2023

Passages and the Cultural Problem of the Death of Sex Scenes in Film

August 5, 2023

Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things

Divorcing the Disarray in Minimalism (2015): A Documentary About the Important Things – On What It Means to be Minimally More

August 4, 2023

Pritha Banerjee

Wes Anderson's Asteroid City

The Many Influences of Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City (2023)

August 4, 2023

The Big Lebowski

Why The Big Lebowski (1998) Is Beloved?

August 3, 2023

Hailey’s On It (2023)

Hailey’s On It (2023): What Would It Look Like In Real-Life? The Answers Might Give You A New Perspective On Weakness

August 3, 2023

Gerald's Game (2017): Ruminating over a Woman's Survival through the Allegory of Handcuffs, Solar Eclipse, Moonlight Man, Memories, & Monsters

Gerald’s Game (2017): Ruminating over a Woman’s Survival through the Allegory of Handcuffs, Solar Eclipse, Moonlight Man, Memories, & Monsters

August 2, 2023

Explore the intricate dynamics of the mother-daughter bond in Lady Bird (2017) as they navigate "Mother-ing Up" and "Daughter-ing Down

The Drive across “Mother-ing Up” & “Daughter-ing Down”: The Multitudinous Complexities of the Mother-Daughter Relationship in Lady Bird (2017)

August 2, 2023

Why Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s Best-Directed Film Yet?

Why Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s Best-Directed Film Yet?

August 2, 2023

Adil Rahim Hyder

Rocky aur Rani kii Prem Kahani Sterotypes

How ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’ Exudes Typical Grandiose of KJo’s Films While Subverting Societal Stereotypes

July 31, 2023

A Long Time on the Epiphanic Road: Chihiro’s Coming of Age and Personal Growth in Spirited Away (2001)

A Long Time on the Epiphanic Road: Chihiro’s Coming of Age and Personal Growth in Spirited Away (2001)

July 30, 2023

Limbo (2020) Movie Review High On Films

Column · Netflix · Streaming Now

Limbo (2020): The Story of Imprisoned Art

July 29, 2023

Balachandran Chirammal

Undine (2020)

Undine: When A Curse Becomes A Choice

July 28, 2023

Barbenheimer Culture

How Barbenheimer Has Redefined Culture

July 28, 2023

The Passions of Pedro Almodóvar

Article · Essay

The Passions of Pedro Almodóvar

Momchil Draganov September 3, 2024

The KKK Files: How “Birth of a Nation” Deepened the Already Existing Fault Lines in the Society

Article · Essay

The KKK Files: How “Birth of a Nation” Deepened the Already Existing Fault Lines in the Society

Arjun Niyogi April 7, 2022

The Great Dictator (1940): What does Comedy mean for a Dictator?

Article · Essay

The Great Dictator (1940): What does Comedy mean for a Dictator?

Emre Yalçın April 7, 2022

The Batman (2022) Spoiler Analysis: What is the Future of the Caped Crusader?

Article · Essay

The Batman (2022) Spoiler Analysis: What is the Future of the Caped Crusader?

Jude Pepler July 22, 2024

Rashomon and The Subjective Truth

Article · Essay

Rashomon and The Subjective Truth

Arunabha Shome March 29, 2022

Marriage Story (2019): Accepting Love In Separation In Noah Baumbach’s Nuanced Take On Loss

Article · Essay

Marriage Story (2019): Accepting Love In Separation In Noah Baumbach’s Nuanced Take On Loss

Aryan Vyas March 25, 2022

Doubt [2008]: A Crisis of Faith Leads to a Dissection of the Nature of Certainty

Article · Essay

Doubt [2008]: A Crisis of Faith Leads to a Dissection of the Nature of Certainty

Pranjal Singh March 22, 2022

The Kashmir Files: Does Loud Propaganda Negate An Unfortunate Incident In History?

Article · Essay

The Kashmir Files: Does Loud Propaganda Negate An Unfortunate Incident In History?

Aryan Vyas March 21, 2022

Wheel Of Fortune and Fantasy [2021] – A Complex Dish of Desire, Identity & Self-exploration served piping hot

Article · Essay

Wheel Of Fortune and Fantasy [2021] – A Complex Dish of Desire, Identity & Self-exploration served piping hot

Pranjal Singh March 4, 2022