If 'Homebound' made you grateful for your friends, these films will make you include them in your will
Celebrating 50 shades of friendship
Friendship is a bond unlike any other. It is a spectrum of emotions, experiences, shared dreams (and shared dislike for the same people). It signifies mutual trust and respect, the willingness to protect each other and be each other’s resting place. But this relationship isn’t always linear. Remember the time you fought with your best friend over something that later seemed insignificant? Or the time you both went through something devastating that strained your relationship forever? Friendship is messy. It heals, but it may also hurt. It makes you laugh, but it may also make you cry.
Homebound, starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor, masterfully portrays this one-of-a-kind connection. Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, the film follows the story of childhood friends Shoaib and Chandan, who are trying to rise above their social identities and economic circumstances. In their quest to live with dignity, their equation is tested. But friendship takes centrestage when the Covid-19 pandemic strikes, and the two have to embark on the long, treacherous journey back to their village in north India from Surat. Based on an op-ed written by Basharat Peer in The New York Times, titled ‘A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway’, the story is a heart-wrenching portrait of the power of true friendship.
Like Homebound, which is India’s official Oscar entry this year, several other films have managed to bring out a nuanced understanding of friendship that isn’t always unicorns and rainbows. While classics like Dil Chahta Hai, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani often top the list of best-friendship films, here is a list of recent stories that explore different shades of this relationship, without oversimplifying or stereotyping it.
9 movies about friendship that deserve a spot on your watchlist
Superboys of Malegaon (2024)
If you have ever made plans to start a business with your friend, or go to the same university, you already understand the essence of this film. Written by Varun Grover and directed by Reema Kagti, Superboys of Malegaon follows the journey of wedding photographer Nasir Shaikh and his friends, who experiment with video equipment, techniques and creative processes to make spoofs of popular Bollywood films. As ambition grows, conflicts arise within the group and friendships are tested. The film presents a tale of friendship and faith, and how these two intertwine to realise the potential and power of a shared dream.
While it shows the evolving dynamics between friends, this movie about filmmaking will be a treat for the film nerd. Set between 1997 and 2011, it takes you from an era of VHS tapes to CDs to upgraded computers and cameras. You see the hustlers moving from one phase to another, and Adarsh Gourav, who plays the role of Nasir, shines at exhibiting that restless ambition.
All We Imagine as Light (2024)
Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light serves as a quiet answer to why female friendships need to be celebrated more often, and more overtly. Prabha, Anu and Parvaty, who work in the same hospital (the former two being nurses, and the latter being a cook), have a circumstantial relationship as colleagues. But as the film progresses, this equation develops into a beautiful friendship through shared vulnerabilities and struggles. The three become confidantes, helping each other navigate love, life and everything in between.
Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival in 2024, this film does not feature loud declarations of friendship, but subtle gestures and non-judgemental moments that create an unspoken bond, helping the protagonists navigate longing, loneliness and loss.
Manjummel Boys (2024)
What risks will you take to save a friend in danger? As a group of friends explores the Guna Caves while on a trip to Kodaikanal, adversity strikes when one of them falls into a pit inside the cave. What follows is a thrilling tale of survival, but also a gritty account of how the boys overcome challenges and participate in a rescue mission to save their friend. They refuse to give up despite the chances of survival being minimal.
While Manjummel Boys, written and directed by Chidambaram S. Poduval, is centred on the initial carelessness of the boys and the logistics of the rescue operation, it has moments that show the strength of friendship. The characters have flaws, but when it matters, they stick together and overcome a challenging situation.
Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) (2025)
Sabar Bonda will make you believe that friendship has the special talent of being the foundation of other relationships in life. Anand, a city-dweller, returns to his ancestral village to observe a 10-day mourning period after his father’s passing. There, he reconnects with his childhood friend Balya, who is dealing with his own challenges. As the two navigate grief and societal pressures, their friendship develops into something more heartfelt and special as they realise their love for each other.
This queer love story, which won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema: Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival this year, treats friendship as a catalyst not only for love but also for self-reflection and identity. It became the first Indian fiction film to win this award, and also the first Marathi film to premiere at the festival. Released last month, it’s yet to come on OTT platforms.
Watch it in a theatre near you (only in Pune)
The Friend (2025)
This film isn’t just about friendship, it’s about the most loyal kind there is—between a person and a pet. Iris, a single woman in her 40s, inherits her late best friend Walter’s Great Dane named Apollo. He refuses to eat or play after Walter’s passing; the only things that made him happy are Walter’s old sweatshirt and being read to. Though not a dog person, Iris befriends him while offering him comfort. Before long, she finds herself processing the loss of her friend alongside his dog. As they grieve together, an unexpected bond of love and quiet companionship forms between them.
The film is adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend, which won the 2018 US National Book Award for Fiction.
Nonnas (2025)
Grief, gnocchi, and grandmothers—Nonnas, directed by The Perks Of Being A Wallflower director Stephen Chbosky, is proof that food really does heal, along with a few good friends in life. The film tells the story of Joe Scaravella, a man who is grieving the death of his mother. His best friend Bruno is there for him during this difficult phase of his life, and seeing him so distraught, suggests that Joe channel his grief into creating something beautiful. He goes on to help Joe set up an Italian restaurant run by nonnas, as an ode to the dishes his mother and grandmother would whip up for him. The relationship between the two men becomes Joe’s safety net.
The nonnas too, after initial clashes, find themselves bonding over stories of love and loss, showing us that it’s possible to find deeper connections when you’re older, too. Joe and the nonnas are one another’s companions in this new chapter of their lives, because sometimes a family is made of friends.
Flow (2024)
The Latvian winner of this year’s Oscar for Best Animated Film (it features zero dialogue) will keep you on the edge of your seat. A solitary and quick-witted cat goes on a terrifying adventure in an apocalyptic world where floods are taking over. Though initially wary, he learns to collaborate with an unlikely crew that includes a capybara, a lemur, a secretary bird, and a dog in their collective quest for survival. Their journey through drowned forests and surreal water-worlds is less about doom and more about connection, trust and teamwork, as they save one another’s lives again and again.
This is the kind of film that makes you hug your friends after and whisper, “We’d survive the flood together, right?”
Adios Amigo (2024)
Sometimes, the best friendships come from the unlikeliest of places. This Malayalam film introduces us to Priyan, a middle-aged man drowning in debt and worried for his sick mother, and Prince, a spoiled, reckless young man from a broken family. Their chance meeting at a bus stop spirals into an unforgettable road trip through Kochi. Priyan gives Prince the harsh truth, not sugar-coated friendship, while Prince shows loyalty by helping him financially. When someone advises Priyan to leave his messed-up, drunken friend behind, he refuses to do so. Just like we don’t leave our drunk friends at a club, even if they are puking their guts out in the washroom.
Seasoned Malayalam actor Asif Ali who plays Prince suffered a serious leg injury right before the film’s shoot and shared that it was co-star Suraj Venjaramoodu, who plays Priyan, who was his biggest support. “My brother, this is our fifth film together. You’ve been a strong pillar and my greatest strength during this shoot,” he said in a post. Their off-screen camaraderie clearly shines through in their on-screen chemistry.
My Old Ass (2024)
This film was born out of a memory, writer Megan Park told the Los Angeles Times. One night, while staying in her parents’ house, she found herself in her old bedroom and suddenly remembered her last night there as an 18-year-old. “I wondered what would feel different if I could go back and tell myself to appreciate that night in my bedroom,” she wrote in the article. That thought became the seed for My Old Ass.
In the film, 18-year-old Elliott meets her 38-year-old self after a mushroom trip on a camping night with friends. The older Elliott looks out for her younger self, warning her to stay away from a boy named Chad. Of course, the younger Elliott falls in love with him anyway. Sr. Elliott confides in her younger self about the grief she felt after Chad’s death. The younger Elliott reminds her that love is worth the risk, even when it ends in loss. Together, they form a unique friendship, each helping the other heal.
My Old Ass gently nudges you to be kinder to yourself—to forgive, to feel, and to be your own friend first. Aubrey Plaza who plays the older Elliott also spoke about her loss and grief on Amy Poehler’s podcast. Plaza, who is grieving her husband, spoke about how her healing journey is not linear, but she’s grateful to be able to be “functioning” and “moving through the world.“
