Few Indians are aware of the number of suicides that occur in Indian Hostels as a result of the phenomenon termed as ‘Ragging’. This sadistic practice has become a ritual wherein students are beaten up, stripped, paraded naked, starved, tortured, molested and even raped by their seniors. Hostel movie review…
Since victims of ragging find it humiliating to report sexual abuse to their parents or others, most ragging-related crimes go unreported. Munnabhai MBBS and even 3 Idiots had a scene or two about this suffering which is called as ragging.
Thus, this cruel practice continues year after year and has claimed (and is still claiming) the lives and careers of innumerable students. The film ‘Hostel’ is a shocking eye-opener about this evil practice and is a wake-up call for all of us.
Karan (Vatsal Seth), gets into an engineering college and takes up lodging in the so-called hostel. Unfortunately for him, the other occupants of this hostel are a bunch of goons. They are senior students who have a leader in an oppressive future political hopeful called Feroz (Mukhesh Tiwari).
Feroz and the crooked warden bully and rags the new entrants into following his commands. The fresh entrant Karan comes into Feroz’s line of sight and is ragged heartlessly, before Karan decides to hit back.
In this hostel, ragging means anything like being paraded naked, to be beaten up, and even up to rape and molestation, which incidentally goes unnoticed by the university authorities. So every year the juniors are ragged, and with time gone by, they become seniors and in turn rag the new comers, thus keeping the wheel of this abuse on and on.
Writer director Manish Gupta’s film Hostel takes on the politicians of the state, keeping the central issue of ragging in the forefront. He deals sincerely with the issue of ragging, this infectious unwanted trend prevalent in numerous institutions in the country.
In recent times, it is widely reported in the newspapers and electronic media about the negative results of this abuts which leads to more and more suicides and deaths every year.
Right from the beginning in the film Hostel, there is torture and the beatings of the students in full pace that continues unabated till the ending with credits rolling.
Vatsal Seth as Karan is expressive with his scowls when being a victim and impressive in his bouts of anger exploding his pent up frustration. The lovely Tulip Joshi has less scope in this drama, just appearing as Payal, Vatsal’s girlfriend of and on.
Nagesh Bhonsle as the dishonest warden of the hostel as well as Mukesh Tiwari, as Feroz create a sense of terror. Music of the film, background score and the songs are nothing to mention about while it director Manish Gupta’s option to attempt a film on this subject has to be appreciated.
The students of engineering stream don’t look like students, actually they appear more like ruffians and hooligans.
Cast of Hostel:
Vatsal Seth – Karan
Tulip Joshi – Payal
Mukesh Tiwari – Feroz
Nagesh Bhonsle – Hostel Warden
Ramesh Chandane – Nilesh
Panne Chatterjee – Prostitute
Subeer Goswamin – Vishnu
Yusuf Hussain – Dean
Chandrachur Karnik – Peon Shantaram
Aashif Sheikh – Akshay
Padam Singh – Ayoob
Nirmal Soni – Bobby
Vikamra – Pawan
Credits & Crew of Hostel:
Writer-Director – Manish Gupta
Producer – Vicky Tejwani, Gurpal Sachar
Head Of Distribution – Sudhir N.R.
Director Of Photography – Srikanth Naroj
Action – Parvez Khan
Editor – Sanjib Datta
Music & Lyrics – Virag Mishra
Costumes – Darshan Jalan
Publicity Stills – Jitu Savlani
Publicity Design – Able & Will
Hostel, movie review