This film’s motto is: When in doubt, kill. As the body count rises – everyone is trigger-happy here – the violence starts to feel like a gratuitous glue trying to hold the plot together. But in the second hour, the brutality becomes less interesting. The first half of Love Hostel is a bloody, gripping nightmare. Shanker has a real talent for creating tension and shock. Love Hostel is mostly a chase film with Dagar in hot pursuit of his prey – Jyoti and Ahmed. It’s a strange, surreal room filled with emotions that have no meaning or value in this monstrous landscape.īut sadly, we don’t spend enough time here. There are bunk beds and a designated spot behind diaphanous, hoisted sarees for lovemaking. The walls at the entrance are covered with graffiti, almost as though runaway couples insist on making their love real by scribbling it on the walls. Shanker imagines this space as a seedy oasis run by overweight, corrupt cops, where lovers who disobey the iron-clad rules of this world can find a semblance of peace. It is where Jyoti and Ahmed land up after marriage, desperate to escape her murderous family.

The title Love Hostel refers to safe houses created by the government for couples whose lives are under threat. Dagar’s finale also somewhat echoes what happens to Chigurh. Another character refers to him as Yamraj. And Dagar seems to be the desi brother of Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men, a twisted psychopath on a mission of samaj sudhaar. The sense of foreboding and dread that the director skilfully constructs will remind you of the first short in Dibakar Banerjee’s superb 2010 film, Love Sex Aur Dhokha, which also dealt with honour killing. Shanker, who has also written the screenplay along with co-writers Mehak Jamal and Yogi Sinha, isn’t interested in providing viewers comfort or respite.

Hostel the movie 2018