Engga Hostel Series Review: Promising premise undermined by bland and superficial narrative

Hostel life offered many their first taste of freedom, and it is something that a lot of young people crave. While some reminisce about the good old days of hostel lives, some others rue missing out on all the fun. Prime Video's latest, Engga Hostel, inspired by the Hindi series Hostel Daze, tries to put a spotlight on the lives and ordeals of hostellers. However, it ends up becoming just an echo of myths associated with hostel dwelling, rather than giving people a taste of the reality. 

Cast: Sacchin Nachiappan, Samyuktha Vishwanathan, Avinaash Ramesh, Saranya, Goutham Raj, Dravid Selvam

Director: Sathish Chandrasekaran

Streaming on: Prime Video

The opening shots of Engga Hostel show the ominous and dark hallways of a boys' hostel in an Engineering college. We are introduced to newcomers, Ajay (Sacchin), Senthil (Goutham Raj) and Pandi (Dravid Selvam), who have all arrived at the campus with assumptions and aspirations of their own. We are also introduced to campus seniors, the self-anointed hostel lords —Chitthappu (Avinaash Ramesh) and Chang (Chu Khoy Sheng)— who indulge themselves in the unabashed ragging of juniors. With the introduction to the characters of Ahaana (Samyuktha) and Rajathilagam (Saranya), Engga Hostel kicks off on a journey where we explore the lives of these characters in an Engineering college hostel.

While there is an initial intrigue to all these characters, they aren't fleshed out enough. For example, Senthil is established as a native of Kerala who speaks Tamil and English with a heavy accent. Similarly, Chithappu starts every dialogue with an expletive just to reiterate his brashness. These character tics just get tiring through the course of the series. There is not enough exploration of the characters, and we are just left with a superficial glimpse into their personality traits. 

For a series on the life of college-goers, Engga Hostel does manage to get some things right. When Ahaana asks why she needs chemistry to become an Engineer, the lab teacher juxtaposes the covalent bonds of chemicals to interpersonal relationships and reiterates that Chemistry is applied to day-to-day living too. The five-episode series has such analogies in every episode, which is spelt out by enterprising cameos featuring Dayalan, Rama, and Vaiyapuri, among others. 

It is disappointing that even after all these years, the hostel life is just portrayed with its age-old cliches that have been surviving since the 80s. For example, why hark so much on the hostel boys' obsession with pornography? Why saddle hostel boys with just one arc, which is just an exaggerated and uncomfortable narrative about their addiction to porn? The makers clearly missed out on providing a deeper insight into the life of hostellers and chose to go for easy pickings and ticking checkboxes. 

While the sexual fantasies of both male and female hostellers are discussed, the core of the series seems to be romance. Other conflicts are relegated to cameos in this rather incomplete screenplay. In fact, even the romance is also left mid-way and provides no answers to the story. This way, the series feels like a combination of bits and pieces put together to form a haphazard story rather than a seamless narrative about hostel life. 

The strength of the series is in the consistency of the actors. While Sacchin and Saranya are the standouts, Avinaash Ramesh’s potential is underserved by the tiresome character arc. Samyuktha, Dravid Selvam, and Goutham Raj shine as they perfectly fit into their roles. 

Points to the makers of Engga Hostel for trying to step up the progressive quotient. Be it the scene where two women discuss sexual pleasure, or the scene where a man is shown wearing lipstick and a woman is seen welding in a mechanical lab, the narrative aims to question the imposed gender norms. However, these ‘progressive’ ideas are just a passing cloud of hope in the duststorm left by adhering to stereotypes. Despite the makers' attempts to appeal to all genders, the overwhelming focus is still on the boys' hostel and its problems. 

At a rather easy 150-minute watch, Engga Hostel has the potential to keep us entertained. There is a possibility that one will reminisce on their own hostel lives or make others feel bad about missing out on such a life in their formative years. But honestly, the series, on its own, isn't really impactful, because there is only so much that having a heart in the right place and light-hearted humour can take you when a coming-of-age tale isn't novel or brave enough to offer something new and exciting.