‘LOVE HOSTEL’ REVIEW | 25 February, 2022

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Zee5, Red Chillies Entertainment and Drishyam Films’ Love Hostel (A) is about honour killing in Haryana. On the day of her marriage, Jyoti Dilawar (Sanya Malhotra), a Hindu girl, elopes with her Muslim boyfriend, Ashu Shokeen (Vikrant Massey), and marries him. Since her grandmother (who is a politician) and younger brother are against the marriage and are a threat to their lives, she goes to the court which gives the newly-wed couple a place to hide themselves. The ‘love hostel’ houses other couples like them. Jyoti’s grandmother hires a more-than-willing Viraj Singh Dagar (Bobby Deol) to kill the newly-weds. However, police inspector Sushil Rathi (Raj Arjun) is out to save the couple. If Dagar has his reasons to kill them, Rathi has his to save them. Besides the back stories of Dagar and Rathi, there is the back story of Shokeen too. Meanwhile, to save the Dilawar family’s honour, Jyoti’s grandmother wants Jyoti’s younger sister, Babli (Simran Rawal), to now marry the boy with whom Jyoti was to get married.

What happens to Jyoti, Shokeen, Dagar, Babli, Shokeen’s family, Jyoti’s grandmother, etc.?

Mehak Jamal and Yogi Singha have written a story which has been tackled in several earlier films. In other words, it is not a novel story just like Kunal Sharma’s concept isn’t original. Also, the back stories come one after the other and put a strain on the minds of the audience. The screenplay, written by Shanker Raman, is not very impressive as it is confusing at times. Besides, some scenes are placed so wrongly that you are left wondering how the characters can do what they are doing when they are doing it. That’s when the audience begins to disconnect from what’s happening on the screen. Kagar’s indiscriminate killing gets on the viewers’ nerves. Although the writers have sought to explain why Kagar behaves like that by delving into his past, the audience does not get convinced. Yogi Singha’s dialogues are very good.

Vikrant Massey essays the character of Ashu Shokeen with elan but the defects of the script adversely affect the impact of his good performance. Sanya Malhotra is very natural as Jyoti Dilawar. Bobby Deol does a fine job as the manic killer, Dagar. Raj Arjun lends decent support as police officer Sushil Rathi. Swaroopa Ghosh makes an impact as Kamala Dilawar. Simran Rawal is good as Babli Dilawar. Aditi Vasudev has her moments as Nidhi Dahiya. Sidharth Bhardwaj is fantastic as Chaudhary. Akshay Oberoi makes his presence felt in a special appearance as Diler. Yogi Singha (as constable Jhakkad), Yogesh Tiwari (as Jyoti’s father), Kumkum Jain (as Jyoti’s mother), Yudhvir Ahlawat (as Rakesh Dilawar), Pankaj Banjara (as Rathi’s brother, Yogi), Naaz Shaikh (as Nidhi’s sister, Tulsi), Sonal Jha (as Sushil Rathi’s wife), Vishal Omprakash (as Ashok Khanna), Arun Marwah (as the judge), Gopal Sethi (as Ashu’s father), Seema Raja (as Ashu’s mother), Jasmine (as Shilpa), Inderjeet Singh (as Raju), Ramesh Kundu (as Suraj Bhan), Manoj Bakshi (as Pratap) and the others lend good support.

Shanker Raman’s direction is only fair. He has not been able to hold the audience’s interest too well because of the weak script and also due to the lack of a gripping narrative style. Clinton Cerejo’s background score is okay. Vivek Shah’s cinematography is pretty good. Action scenes are well choreographed by Amritpal Singh. Production designing (by Mausam Aggarwal) and art direction (by Sheena Gola) are of a fine standard. Nitin Baid and Shan Mohammed’s editing ought to have been tighter.

On the whole, Love Hostel is too ordinary to make an impact on the viewers.

Released on 25-2-’22 on Zee5.