I recently had the chance to watch the movie “Homebound” over the break. This movie was India’s official entry for the 98th Academy Awards 2026. Though it did not win an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film despite being shortlisted in the top 15, the movie is a must-watch for policy students. The movie is an adaptation of real-life events, based on the story behind a viral photograph that captured a man on a highway cradling his feverish, dehydrated friend as they made their way back to their hometown. They were part of the mass exodus of nearly 10 million migrant workers during the Covid-19 lockdown in India. 

It is an example of how nothing within a society happens in isolation. Every single debated issue within a society is, in fact, a symptom of a much larger disease that is eating away at the social fabric. Why did the two people end up on the highway? The movie’s screenplay gives us the answers as it takes us through events that seem completely unrelated, but together they lead to the devastating climax. Could this heartbreaking ending have been prevented? Yes. I will be discussing specific aspects of the movie, so if you have not watched it yet, be warned that there are spoilers ahead. 

The movie highlights India’s biggest faultlines – caste and religion. India’s caste system is a centuries-old social hierarchy that divides people based on their birth and occupation. In this rigid hierarchy, people belonging to the lowest caste face much discrimination and social isolation. Even though India is a diverse secular country, with its citizens practising many religions, there are also faultlines based on religion. The movie talks about the everyday realities of societal divisions based on caste and religion. 

We see how this affects daily life in the simplest things, from playing cricket to getting hired in an office, being selected for a public service role, to watching an India versus Pakistan cricket match. We see how in a school, parents of upper caste children protest against lower caste women preparing food and feeding the children. Governance is also about building a culture of community that can help bridge this divide, alongside the everyday mechanics. With a Hindu majoritarian governance system in place, the governance culture becomes skewed unless conscious effort is made. How can a society that is unhappy and divided have growth that ensures that every citizen within the system flourishes?

The movie also reveals the dangers of power, which, when confined to bureaucratic spaces at the highest elite levels, risks being blindsided by the harsh realities on the ground, and how a single piece of law can irreversibly change the lives of millions. The mass exodus of migrant workers during the Covid-19 lockdown is highlighted in the movie as an example. For some, the lockdown meant having access to food, medicine, and resources to lock themselves away from the dangers of a disease-torn world in the comfort of their homes. But for many, not working even for a day and living far away from their homes as migrant workers with no access to transportation back was a death sentence.

In India, social and income inequality are worsening. Growing unemployment and lack of job security force people to migrate to different parts of the country in search of jobs. This is consistently shown in the movie. The movie also talks about the exclusion of women in society by patriarchal structures – in education and in decision making, in the way a daughter is not allowed to study as the family spends their savings on their son to study. All of these issues are symptoms of governance failure.

Despite the gloom, the movie also shows there is hope for change through a friendship between a lower-caste Hindu man and a Muslim man. Despite rampant prejudice and outright discrimination, their friendship endures until the very end, a silent rebellion against social divides. Despite people from different walks of life perpetuating religious and caste divides in the movie, there are also people who call out such discrimination, a loud portrayal of hope.  

All of the events in the movie are interlinked and intersectional, revealing the broader reality of a governance collapse. This holds true in our daily lives as well. Problems we face across different aspects of our lives are interconnected and intersectional. If a governance system is to succeed, intersectionality cannot be ignored, and we, as policy professionals, need to wear multiple hats simultaneously to solve governance problems. 

Though the movie is set in India, the broader context of growing social divides holds true for many countries. As the world around us is fractured by social divides, it is important for us to sit and reflect on this now more than ever. It might seem like a daunting task as it is often easier to break things than to fix them. For us, policy practitioners, such fractured systems offer clues on how to reverse-engineer this governance collapse. Stitching up the tears in the social fabric of societies by fostering a culture of community is one of the most important tasks ahead for future policymakers.