New Delhi: For director Neeraj Ghaywan, the hardest part of making Homebound was creating the backstories of two friends, one Muslim and the other Dalit. Especially as he “had not lived their reality”. The film struck an emotional chord at Cannes, where it received a nine-minute standing ovation.
The film is based on journalist Basharat Peer’s article ‘Taking Amrit Home’, which was published in The New York Times‘ Sunday Opinion section on 31 July 2020. Set in the first year of the pandemic and the lockdown, it follows two friends, both migrant workers, who travel on foot from Surat in Gujarat to their home in Devari, Uttar Pradesh.
“Adaptations can go terribly wrong. But Ghaywan got the heart and soul of it. It is a beautiful film, and I really loved it because it perfectly captures the story and also adds a layer and backstories,” said Peer. His article is based on a photograph of two friends, Mohammad Saiyub (22) and Amrit Kumar (24), who grew up in a village in UP.
Both young men have faced discrimination and oppression all their lives. To escape this cycle, they applied for jobs with the police force. However, an entire year passed without an official answer, forcing them to become migrant workers. But Covid-19 and the national lockdown upended their lives.
“I have been touring the hinterlands of North India for some time, chasing various stories. I am interested in an almost ethnographic look into people from various backgrounds. I had also travelled with Basharat to meet the people from the article. These experiences helped in arriving a bit closer to the probable lived reality of these characters we were building,” said Ghaywan.
The director is no stranger to Cannes. His critically acclaimed film Masaan—set in Varanasi—made its debut at the international festival in 2010. Peer’s books, too, have enjoyed cinematic success. His Curfewed Night (2010) was the inspiration behind Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider (2014).
When writing his NYT article, he wanted to give the two friends dignity, and to bring on paper their compassion and decency.
“Ghaywan translates it to screen, with that same dignity and respect,” said Peer.
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Chasing a story
Peer was working as an editor with The New York Times when he saw a photograph of two men near a highway in Madhya Pradesh. One had collapsed, and the other was holding his head in his lap. They were among the millions who had to travel hundreds of kilometres to get back home after PM Modi declared the first lockdown in March 2020.
“I thought this could be a powerful story, and it was just my journalistic instinct. I did not want to commission the story–it had moved me deeply. I had to do it,” said Peer. A few quick calls later, he identified the young men. It was Saiyub who was photographed clutching his friend, protecting him from the scorching heat, while trying to pour water down his parched throat.
He decided to track them down and made his way to Devari, where they were headed. Peer had his misgivings about travelling in the peak of the pandemic, due to his existing health issues. But the story had moved him so much, he decided to go anyway.
When the article finally came out, it went viral. Millions of readers the world over were moved by the two young men and their journey home. The standing ovation at Cannes was a full-circle moment.
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Adapting for the big screen
Ghaywan uses Peer’s story as the backbone for his film. In the reel world, it’s Shoaib and Chandan who become best friends. Ishaan Khatter plays Shoaib, and Vishal Jethwa is Chandan.
He also created the character of Sudha (Janhvi Kapoor), Chandan’s love interest.
“The original article was about the two boys. That it would be an all-male film wasn’t sitting well with me. However, Janhvi’s character or even the other female characters aren’t shoehorned into the film for the sake of inclusivity. They have distinct characters with agency and bring a major turn in the narrative,” said Ghaywan.
It is Sudha who realises the futility of chasing after a ‘police job’.
“She is an Ambedkarite without a flag in her hand,” said Ghaywan, who also brings in other important female characters like Chandan’s mother (Shalini Vatsa), his sister (Harshika Parmar) and Shoaib’s mother (Sudipta Saxena).
He credits Sumit Roy, his partner in the story development, for streamlining his ideas into cogent characters.
A major part of the background came from Ghaywan’s own childhood and experiences as a person from the same communities as the characters he was making a film on.
“It was truly scary to put myself out there,” said the director. Ghaywan also got Khatter and Jethwa to spend time in villages to get a sense of the lived reality of the characters they play.
This sense of realism is a common denominator in all his work, be it Masaan or Geeli Pucchi, a short from the Netflix anthology Ajeeb Dastaan. He brought a Dalit Buddhist wedding to mainstream OTT in a Made in Heaven episode titled The Heart Skipped a Beat.
“I was also particular about not reimagining and misappropriating cultures in Homebound,” he added.
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Acquiring rights
It was Somen Mishra, a former journalist and the current head of creative development at Dharma Productions, who came up with the idea of adapting Peer’s article.
The two met in Mumbai in 2021, and in the course of conversation, Mishra asked Peer if the rights to the article were available. Peer was intrigued, but unsure about why Dharma, known for opulent, larger-than-life films, would be interested in a story like this.
It took months for the rights to be acquired. While Peer was asked to write a script, his other commitments got in the way.
Peer keeps up correspondence with the young hero of his story.
“We send each other voice notes. He is a lovely, hardworking young man. He eventually left the village, drove a truck, worked in Mumbai for a bit, and has been working in Dubai for the past few years,” said Peer. Initially, he was homesick, missing the sights and sounds of India. But he has now adjusted to life in Dubai.
“I am waiting now to watch the movie with him,” said Peer.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Why bring in female characters for inclusivity? This is stupidity at it’s extreme.
The best solution was to portray them as a gay couple. That would have been really inclusive and touching.
The LGBTQIA+ community would have been elated. Also, that would have got at least 18 minutes of standing ovation at the Cannes.