Hostel Movie Review: A problematic, dull horror comedy

Every time I step into the theatre to catch a comedy, I think of actor Santhanam once saying, "If we had to make people laugh without offending anyone, our only choice is to go tickle them.” When faced with offensive comedy, you have two choices. You can either try and have fun, or you can get miffed and call out the unacceptable representation. I was inclined on doing the former, but shortly after the film began, all I could do was the latter.

In this remake of the Malayalam film, Adi Kapyare Kootamani, there are some new distasteful ideas brought in, under the guise of comedy. For instance, the ghost gets a disturbing backstory in which she ends her life due to rejections she faces due to her dark complexion. This film bizarrely thinks that this is worthy of being treated as humour. There’s a running gag made of people who see her face. At a time when there’s growing awareness about how body-shaming and colour-shaming can cause mental health issues, we have this film in which a woman becomes a ghost because she fails to meet conventional beauty standards. Though it is mentioned multiple times that the setting is a temporary hostel, it seemed like anything but one. The place, in fact, looks eerily similar to an asylum.

Director: Sumanth Radhakrishnan

Cast: Ashok Selvan, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Sathish, Nassar, Munishkanth

Even leaving problematic portrayal aside, there’s precious little in this film that relies heavily on double entendres referring to sex and masturbation. However, the U/A certification means that the film doesn’t really let go in these spaces. And then, there’s the overpowering, suggestive background score by Bobo Shashi that kills the rare decent joke.

It is surprising to see the usually impressive Ashok Selvan and Priya Bhavani Shankar operating in energy-saver mode, offering quite little to this underwhelming retelling. Though the slapstick performances from Nassar and Munishkanth make us smile occasionally, the jarring work of the rest of the cast brings it down. Several times in the film, Nassar's Father Kuriakose asks his students to be disciplined and silent in vain. Kuriakose might have been made happy by a visit to the theatre I saw this comedy in. There was pin-drop silence throughout