Hostel Daze season 3 review: A return to some form of old

Hostel Daze, the rather scruffy, but ultimately redeemable series on Amazon Prime is back for an unlikely third season. Unlikely, because for a series built around the idea of nostalgia, material begins to run thin beyond the tailored list of events that must cycle forward like reality – 1st year, 2nd year and so on. There has never been a lack of spunk in this series, so well have the main characters been cast and written but despite that nary expendable promise, the second season fatigue was well on display the last time round. So much so, it felt odd that the same group would return for a third season. Add to that the replacement of Adarsh Gourav , an actor who has rather tellingly for a series about friendship among un-equals has left everyone else behind with his swift ascent. All that jeopardy and still, Hostel Daze in its third season, continues to be silly, fun, frivolous and deviously, emotional. Utsav Sarkar replaces Gourav in this third season as Ankit, but much like the second season, he is no longer the story, or at least the only story worth telling. What mostly works for this format is the staggered, short-film approach to each episode. There is conflict, mystery, strain and resolution within the same episode. It saves the series from trying to eke out sombreness where diffidence would do. Hostel Daze teases gravity every now and then, but it chooses to roll over it, much like the title of the show. It’s a daze, these years in college, as if they are trying to say. In the third season, the group returns with new horizons, some significant, some farcically overblown. Surprisingly, both are enjoyable. Jhantu, played by Nikhil Vijay, contests an election, Ankit and Akansha come to loggerheads in their relationship while Chirag played by Luv Vispute holds together the group as the charming, but childish anchor to a band of rabble-rousers. What’s innovative and fresh about this season is the tenacity of the creators to go for broke. An episode based on an ongoing cycle of theft veers into a full-blown skit that mimes various iconic detectives (including Byomkesh Bakshi). It’s reels level pivoting, but here, in the hands of characters we are familiar with, it feels delightfully kooky and victorious. But where Hostel Daze truly earns or has earned its chops is its ability to mine drama and comedy from the most basic of humanly activities. A slow-motion sequence where a boy learns to ‘pay only his share’ is articulated smoothly. Utsav Sarkar doesn’t quite have the redolent charms of a spiky and wide-eyed Gourav, but he is sincere and just about fits the shoes he has been given. Possibly the only question this series has perpetually struggled with is the integration of its women into the narrative. Do you make them accessories or assets? To be honest, the show is still to answer that question, because beyond playing the subject of a male’s attention or in this season, the near-victim of cyber-bullying (Nabomita as Ayushi), the ladies don’t really get to do much, except try and stand beside the men. The cyber-bullying stunt in fact feels out of place, in a series most comfortable when it is not overthinking its own social core. The second question that Hostel Daze still cannot quite answer is whether Jhantu, a senior who has been on campus for 7 years, should be framed as nonchalant comedy or layered tragedy. There have been, now for two seasons in a row signs of both, and the reluctance to really pin one decision to the board, has made Vijay’s character both elusive and frustrating. You get his couldn’t-care-less shtick but in moments where Vijay – an able actor by the way – displays vulnerability, the series quickly jumps in to lift the weight of anticipation. It instead, barrages forward with tepid innuendoes and explainers that though they do a decent job, return the characters to a kind of superficiality. The punch never quite comes from the place you most want it to, really. You have to admire the show’s desire to retain the episodic narrators, of which, the finale is a rather poignant, though obviously unintended tribute. Hostel Daze is, despite all expectations and the grogginess of an underwhelming and ragged second season, still a bit of unique force. It’s the kind of series that makes the cut between Youtube and streaming, and can often flit between improvised set-pieces and solid knotting of the narrative arcs. Of course, it’s silly, loud and uncouth in its language, but in its third season - and third year of college now - the series has matured to a stage where it can pursue chaos, in an orderly fashion. It might not always stick or even sound inspired, but then college to most of us wasn’t about uncovering genius, but papering, often tumbling over mediocrity to find our shaking, two feet; somehow, still standing. Hostel Daze season 3 is streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Manik Sharma writes on art and culture, cinema, books, and everything in between. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .