Hostel Review

Ashwin Ram

Hostel is an official remake of a Malayalam film Adi Kapyare Kootamani. The movie stars Ashok Selvan, Priya Bhavani Shankar and Sathish in the lead roles. It is directed by Sumanth Radhakrishnan of Sadhuram 2 fame. Totally contradictory to the filmmaker’s previous work, this one is a youthful comedy genre flick that revolves around a college hostel, so let’s see what’s in store.

Premise

Ashok Selvan is a college student who stays in the campus hostel which actually looks like one Dungeon, apparently it’s a spooky hostel. He is due to pay a debt, Priya Bhavani Shankar wishes to pay it if he takes her inside the Boys hostel. What is her purpose to step in among all the risks and restrictions, what happens inside the building forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction

Each and every character in the film is made to behave eccentric with no limits as the director might have thought the artists being hyper would evoke comedy, but it didn’t as the movie is an absolute misfire. None of the comedies are funny, in fact on the flip side most of them are so annoying. The movie is filled with toilet jokes and double meaning dialogues, at least these are not my favourite genres of humour and everything looked very forced into the film just to add an appealing moment in the flow. There’s a ghost angle that came from nowhere and literally meant nothing to the story. It’s like the script doesn’t even have a head and tail at least for a namesake. The entire story happens inside a single building, but that’s not the major issue here, the problem is that the story doesn’t move forward at any point of time, till the very end. No clue whatsoever in which path the flow is going ahead, not even a single idea is exciting and there’s nothing to mention as a plot point. Outdated concepts and the team have incorporated some annoying elements thinking these would be apt with the current trend and connect with the audience. It feels like someone or the other is constantly walking here and there inside the hostel building without any purpose.

Performances

Ashok Selvan is usually smart when it comes to script selection, just wondering what would have impressed him to take up this project. Keeping his creative decisions aside, his performance is so odd as he doesn’t suit to express eccentricness. Priya Bhavani Shankar appears for the entire film but nothing much for her to contribute as her character is so weakly portrayed. Sathish’s counters fail to work. Same way the other artists have good space but no scope to score, all the experienced talented supporting artists like Nasser, Ravi Maria, Munishkanth, etc have been outrightly wasted in the film.

Technicalities

There’s honestly no positive points to mention in terms of technical aspects. Sad that a film with noticeable artists is so technically poor. At times, it doesn’t even feel like a completed film in terms of DI colouring, cuts applied in the edit table, etc. Background score is so random and nowhere the music gel for the visuals of the film.

Bottomline

Despite being a remake of a Malayalam film, this one has zero redeeming qualities, not even the plot is appealing.

Rating - 1.5/ 5.