Hostel
Direction: Manish Gupta
Cast: Vatsal Sheth, Mukesh Tiwari
Rating: *1/2
He’s tied to a bed by a collar — made to lick food dry from a bowl. Sharp objects are once in a while stuck up his backside, when a human being isn’t buggering him, of course. There’s incentive of a free prostitute for a night, or a joint if he’s lucky. For dinner or drinks, he could be served piss or saliva, depending on the mood of his masters.
That’s the state of the dog in his first year at the engineering campus of Jaigarh University, Satara district. Note that down. Just in case you know someone studying for one of these courses.
These boys must battle against senselessly sadistic 30-year-old “seniors”. They parade them naked while girls giggle. It’s a trap. There’s conspiracy of silence. Hostel warden (terrible over-actor) is a grizzly goon himself. Principal calls it a matter between students. A dad one of the boys in this hostel could call and confide in complains about his mom sleeping with her boss instead!
Ragging could descend into serious physical torture and humiliation. This is certainly an issue. Campuses are fertile grounds for recruitments for political parties. Hence old students hang around. None of this is really explored in this film. The script has no layers whatsoever.
This place could do with a hero. Given massive heap of male hormones, a heroine would do as well. She looks at the hero, says, “You got really nice eyes.” By second year, she wants to marry him. But then, she taunts, “If you can’t protect yourself, how will I feel safe with you.” You know this fellow will flex his muscles. Don’t wait for it. Seriously.
{{/usCountry}}This place could do with a hero. Given massive heap of male hormones, a heroine would do as well. She looks at the hero, says, “You got really nice eyes.” By second year, she wants to marry him. But then, she taunts, “If you can’t protect yourself, how will I feel safe with you.” You know this fellow will flex his muscles. Don’t wait for it. Seriously.
{{/usCountry}}The film’s director is evidently a Ram Gopal Varma protégé. Clearly this one is less Varma’s stunning Shiva; more Madhur Bhandarkar’s Jail.
Random, freaky blood and pornographic gore is legitimate American genre of low-budget independent films. Audiences get thrills out of these terrifying flicks. Eli Roth’s Hostel (2005) by the way is a popular B film in that league. This film could’ve just been that. Hoax. It’s not even that.