'Homebound' leads in IFFM 2025 Best Film nominations

Homebound (2025) is the Closing Night movie at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM), 14-24 July, 2025. The film premiered at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and received a standing ovation.

The movie is a significant, socially conscious drama that explores friendship, aspiration, and systemic injustice in modern India, marked by strong performances and a collaborative, inclusive production ethos. Homebound is one of the seven nominations in the IFFM’s Best Film category.

“Homebound gives voice to the voiceless but more significantly implicates and indicts the powerful and the privileged for the status quo. It’s a film powered by vital, essential urgency of the times, and for the times, says Namrata Joshi of The New Indian Express.

“A drama in which aspirations collide with harsh political realities, its tale of impoverished young men trying to escape their circumstances proves to be both a moving character piece, as well as a searing indictment of modern India,” writes Siddhant Adlakha in Variety.

Overview

Homebound is a 2025 Indian Hindi-language drama directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and produced by Dharma Productions. The film stars Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor, and Vishal Jethwa in lead roles. Ghaywan, known for his critically acclaimed debut Masaan (2015), returns to feature filmmaking after a decade with this story, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025, drama, one hour 59 minutes. It is directed by Neeraj Ghaywan (Massan fame).

Plot/Themes

The film centers on two childhood friends, Chandan Kumar (Vishal Jethwa) and Mohammed Shoaib Ali (Ishaan Khatter), from a small village in North India. Both aspire to become police officers, seeing the job as a path to dignity and respect they have long been denied due to their marginalized backgrounds—Chandan is Dalit, and Shoaib is Muslim. Their journey is complicated by the harsh realities of caste, religion, and economic hardship in contemporary India, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the friends come closer to their goal, mounting desperation and external pressures strain their bond, testing the limits of their friendship and resilience. The narrative is both a moving character study and a pointed critique of systemic injustice, with the boys’ personal struggles reflecting broader social and political tensions.

Inspiration and Development

Homebound is inspired by the real-life experiences of migrant workers during India’s 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, as recounted in Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer’s New York Times essay, originally titled Taking Amrit Home (later retitled A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway)12. Director Neeraj Ghaywan fictionalized the protagonists’ backstories while retaining the essence of the original article1. Notably, Martin Scorsese served as an executive producer and contributed to the screenplay and editing process1.

Cast and Production

Vishal Jethwa as Chandan Kumar
Ishaan Khatter as Mohammed Shoaib Ali
Janhvi Kapoor as Sudha Bharti
Harshika Parmar as Vaishali, Chandan’s sister1

The film was shot mainly in and around Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, in 2024. Ghaywan emphasizes an inclusive, collaborative production environment, with a focus on gender equity and representation from marginalized communities.

Nominations IFFM 2025