What Is the Story About?
The primary protagonists, Richa (Ahsaas Channa), Jo, aka Anandi Joshi (Srishti Shrivastava), Zahira (Parul Gulati), Mili (Simran Natekar), Ramya (Shreya Mehta), Palak (Khushbu Baid) and Aarav (Gagan Arora) are all back to reprise their roles, among others. The new addition this season is Jayati Bhatia as the Dean of SVM, Sarla Desai.Performances?
The performances in Girls Hostel are the highlight of the show. All the actors know what is expected of them, and they deliver precisely that. Most importantly, they do it while never going over the top or giving overblown or unnecessarily exaggerated portrayals.
Srishti Shrivastava is the USP of the show. She’s simply superb. Parul Gulati, Ahsaas Channa, Gagan Arora and the rest of the cast do a commendable job too. Simran Natekar’s performance is a tad confusing – it is difficult to understand the emotion she wants to convey in most scenes.
Shreya Mehta is loud and boisterous – maybe a requirement for her role, but it gets on our nerves after a while. Jayati Bhatia impresses in her distinctly grey character, proving yet again her versatility and skill.
Analysis
Girls Hostel is an easy, breezy watch – the kind you catch on a lazy evening when you have nothing better to do – and then promptly forget about. It is not the invigorating, impactful, galvanising type of show like TVF’s other offerings – Pitchers, Kota Factory, Yeh Meri Family. It is funny and entertaining while it lasts, and then, it is out of sight, out of mind.
The travails of the girls are depicted in a half-hearted manner. Not only that, they appear and then disappear without any resolution. The water crisis and the space crunch, for example. Both issues fail to move us, even though they are issues faced by more than half of the country. The college elections, the campaigning and canvassing, the promises and manifestos, the hurdles and setbacks – all of it comes across as fake and contrived.
That said, one particular episode does leave an impact – Episode 3 – the one where Jo takes things into her own hands to put right grave, traumatising happenings in the college. It slams home the debilitating hypocrisy of society through Dean Sarla Desai’s suggested solution for the eve-teasers and flashers — boys will be boys, so why not control the girls? Impose a dress code, restrict their movements, get them to stay cooped up inside the hostel, and so on. With minimum exposition, the episode exposes the duplicity prevalent in every sphere of Indian society. Finally, how Jo takes things into her own hands to get the better of the low-life eve-teasers makes for fun watching.
All in all, Girls Hostel is a light-hearted fun watch, which doesn’t make you exert yourself too much to follow what’s going on, and yet, promises a couple of hours of wholesome entertainment.
Music and Other Departments?
The background score and music of Girls Hostel is pleasantly pleasing in parts, and peppy in others. It changes mood, tempo and tenor to set the right tone for whatever theme is prevalent at that time. The end track is soothing and melodious to listen to. Vaibhav Bundhoo and Deeptanshu Mokashi have done a fine job with the musical score of Girls Hostel.
Sudarshan Srinivasan’s camerawork is on point and faultless. Harshit Sharma’s editing is efficient and fluid. Abhimanyu Jai’s production design is perfectly suited to the goings-on in the narrative.
Highlights?
Performances
Easy watch
Episode 3
Drawbacks?
Not impactful enough
Half-hearted depiction and resolution of pressing problems
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes, somewhat
Will You Recommend It?
Only to young adults in the 14-18 years category
Girls Hostel Season 2 Web Series Review by Binged Bureau
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