Fast, crisp, and nerve wracking-ly horrifying, this crime-thriller is too good to be missed. Crafted in an artsy way with superb performances, this crime thriller is unlike the ones next door.

Honor Killing is very widespread in rural India and has been depicted in various movies till date. But it has been given a very horrifying and nerve wracking angle in Love Hostel. The plot revolves around a couple who gets married against the will of the girl’s family. The family has assigned a brutal murderer to kill both of them. That’s all in the plot. However, as the movie walks this line, complexities unravel and the story is narrated to us gradually. Not all things are given out at once. Everything including the characters are brewed slowly making the viewers indulge and invest in the story also at the same time, making it thrilling.

Apart from breaking the usual SOP for Bollywood thrillers, what is amazing about Love Hostel is the performances by the outstanding ensemble. While Vikrant Massey and Sanya Malhotra perform exceptionally. The show stealer in this one is Bobby Deol. Bobby as Dagar is terrific. Every single time that he is on screen will give you goosebumps. He plays this very vicious and psycho character horrifyingly. With minimum or almost no dialogues, Bobby is able to terrorize so well. Vikrant Massey and Sanya both soak the Haryanvi lingo so well and perform with authenticity.

The only problem here is that the accent is taken so seriously, that some dialogues go past without you understanding them. Either the problem is with the makers trying to get very close to authenticity or with the sound design. A lot of dialogues are in a very hushed tone and you end up missing them. Not sure if only I faced this issue or others felt the same.

The direction by Shanker Raman is great and the editing very tight. The film is shot decently too. The screenplay is nicely written and so are the characters. They are well layered yet not too much. There are a lot of graphic violence scenes and killings happening right, left, and center. If you are someone who doesn’t enjoy watching violent and dark content, this probably will squeeze your heart. The poetic justice in the climax is something to look out for.

On the whole, Love Hostel is another nice piece of work coming out of Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. Previously, Red Chillies released Bob Biswas on Zee5 starring Abhishekh Bachchan. It also released Class of ’83 on Netflix starring Bobby Deol. Thus, Love Hostel is Red Chillies second collaboration with Bobby Deol. Love Hostel is also produced by Drishyam Films who had previously produced Kamyaab with Red Chillies. Love Hostel is streaming on Zee5 with a runtime of 2 hours.    

You can watch the trailer here: