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Cast: Ahsaas Channa, Srishti Shrivastava, Parul Gulati, Simran Natekar, Shreya Mehta, Tanvi Lehr Sonigra & ensemble.
Creator: Shreyasi Sharma.
Director: Hanish D Kalia.
Streaming On: Sony LIV.
Language: Hindi.
Runtime: 5 Episodes Around 30 Minutes Each.
Girls Hostel 3.0 Review: What’s It About:
Taking the story of the girls’ hostel of a medical institute, this time the girls tackle the very problem of inclusion and the struggles to get even the basic amenities.
Girls Hostel 3.0 Review: What Works:
Girls Hostel came in at a time back in 2018 when the content in the Indian space was witnessing a paradigm shift. One must not forget apart from the top-notch drama and thrills in Sacred Games, it was TVF who were offering content closer to our life and winning hearts. From the same mill came the show that spoke about female friendships by setting them in a brutal setup. A hostel, is no less than a prison where every inmate has to fight tough situations to get anything.
The season 3 or 3.0 as the makers choose to call it, takes the story ahead but also tries to branch it out. So everyone has escalated by a year and the juniors are now seniors ready to welcome freshers in this complex eco-systems. Written by Anuya Jakatdar, Alka Shukla, and Shreyasi Sharma, now there is enough that you know about these characters, where do they go from here? So the team now tries to introduce a more personal conflict and showcase how the surrounding reacts to it. For this, they choose inclusivity as they introduce a gender-fluid character. The intent in all of this is honest and noble. The execution though….
However, the way the team chooses to handle Srishti Shrivastava’s Jo is commendable. She was always the misfit and to overcome that she covered herself with all the Flamboyance and ‘don’t mess with me attitude. But inside that tough cover, there was always a girl wanting to stand up for herself. This time the show acknowledges her inner battle as she makes a life decision that changes the course of the entire show in a way.
Girls Hostel 3.0 Review: Star Performance:
Tanvi Lehr Sonigra is the best part about the series this time as there is a lot of heavy lifting she is expected to do, and they do it well. The casting is also correct in terms of inclusion and also worth. The next in line is Srishti Shrivastava who plays Jo, the character who embodies the show in a way. She has been through hell in the place and prepares the rest to come. What happens when she calls it enough and chooses to walk away? It is a great angle to explore.
Rest everyone plays their parts as the script allows them to and do their jobs well. And some characters are even borderline caricatures. A character is obsessed with social media but is just funny without making any relevant point. Two characters fighting over irrelevant things that lead to nowhere.
Girls Hostel 3.0 Review: What Doesn’t Work:
The biggest problem with Girls Hostel 3.0 is that it refuses to grow vertically at all and there is no substantial progress as such. This is also a result of the highly missing TVF spark that we now expect from the show which had good two seasons. While there is a new conflict at hand, the show is divided into focusing on it and also taking the story of the recurring characters ahead. But this dilemma ends up doing neither. Both ends seem incomplete and no purpose is achieved.
Blame it on the shorter runtime too, because it probably doesn’t let the creators explore conflicts like they should. Problems enter the lives of the parts and get dissolved in no time. The entire conversation around inclusivity is good and important, but what’s the purpose of it if it ends up looking like just another Twitter thread, the difference only being that people are actually reciting those tweets. Barring Jo’s part, no other emotional journey manages to hook us as an audience.
Also, the past two seasons somewhere gave these girls a three-dimensional world to breathe in. They have families who dropped them to the institute and hostel. But now it looks like the makers have entirely forgotten that they do have people who care for them. If not all, at least half of them. There is no mention of any family for any character and that makes me think why did we invest in the angle in the last two seasons? This isn’t the TVF content all of us fell in love with.
Girls Hostel 3.0 Review: Last Words:
Girls Hostel 3.0 doesn’t take things ahead nor does it explore things deeper. Watch it with no expectations.
For more recommendations, read our Four More Shots Please Season 3 Review.
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