Amazon Prime Video’s young adult comedy-drama series ‘Hostel Daze’ chronicles the life of hostellers depicting the chaos, the friendships and struggles that ensue in their lives after they join an engineering college.
The first season of ‘Hostel Daze’, that premiered on December 13, 2019, followed engineering freshers and first time hostellers namely, Ankit Pandey (Adarsh Gourav), Chirag Bansal (Luv Vispute), Rupesh Bhati aka Jaat (Shubham Gaur), Jatin aka Jhantoo (Nikhil Vijay), Akanksha (Ahsaas Channa) and Nabomita (Ayushi Gupta) as they deal with the new found freedom of college life and high jinks of their hostel seniors.
‘Hostel Daze season 2’, however, sees the freshers turn into seniors with the commencement of second year, where they get an opportunity to engage in carefree antics of their own with new batch of freshers around.
Since the gang of six is a year older, they try to exercise their authority over the ‘freshies’. Their shenanigans, however, land them in trouble with DISCO, the discipline committee, on the complaint of a fresher. The girls, Akanksha and Nabomita, as guided by their hostel seniors, escape the charges and the entire blame lands on the boys.
When Ankit, Rupesh, and Jatin realise that they had not even ragged the said fresher, they plead not guilty and beseech the committee not to fine or suspend them. The fresher, instead, accuses Chirag of ragging him by keeping him away from fun intros and other joys of hostel life, while trying to discipline him, like he is still in school.
Meanwhile Rupesh develops a crush on Unnati (Krutika Deo), the heartthrob of the hostel. He is about to propose to her but Jatin refrains him from going ahead for lack of proper attire and rehearsal. He actually does it because he too falls for her and plans to woo her.
This leads to an altercation between the two, which Chiraag tries to resolve by reminding them about not breaking the ‘bro code’ for a girl. However, they both refuse to relent.
Ankit advises Rupesh to use his sports quota to get friendly with Unnati’s friend, Charu (Arushi Chawla), a sports enthusiast, to win her over to his side. She can then take up his case with Unnati.
However, Jatin gets a date with her, but Unnati refuses his advances and admits to having a crush on Rupesh and trying to get to him through Jatin. As it plays out, Charu develops a crush on Rupesh too.This results in a hilarious love square where boys on both sides engage in a war of words, with each side poking fun on the other.
When an ecstatic Rupesh meets Unnati, she apologises and tells him that since both she and Charu have a crush on him, they have decided not to break the ‘sis code’ and, thus, not to pursue him further. This makes the boys revise their own ‘bro code’ swearing they will never let a girl come in between them again.
Ankit who had fallen for Akanksha in season 1, tries to take their relationship to the next level. However, when a hosteller gets ditched on the pretext of bad personal hygiene by his girlfriend, Ankit gets paranoid about his own room and untidy habits.
Egged on by Chiraag, who convinces him that all girls like their rooms to be neat and well-ordered, he does everything in his power to clean up to impress her. Akansha, however, still does not seem happy and tells him that their relationship won’t work out.
A heartbroken Ankit reaches her hostel to ask her the real reason for breaking up with him. She tries to send him away, but as warden approaches for rounds, has to let him in her room. He is astonished to see that she lives as dirty as he does.
She admits that his being so immaculate and organised made her freak out and think they would never last. His confession, that he did it only to win her over, finds favour with her and they kiss.
The boys plan to go home during break except for Jatin and Rakhi (Sahil Verma). Nostalgia hits them as they share anecdotes from their life back home. Jatin, though pretends to be normal, looks a little downcast.
Does this excitement about going home last long? What does staying away from hostel do to them?
Here is ‘Hostel Daze’ season 2 ending explained in detail:
The break
Jatin and Rakhi are left alone in the entire hostel. They both watch movies on a projector and the former kills his time smoking and roaming about the corridors listening to the echo of his own voice.
Ankit’s mom cooks awesome meals, something he always missed in the hostel. However, despite these meals now, he craves for maggi made in the hostel room as well as having the freedom to smoke or to do anything anytime.
Chirag goes back to his group of Tesla terrorists, but feels out of the place as he inadvertently scandalizes them by using expletives and profanity.
Bhati is morose that even his Buffalo Celina has a partner and there is no one to talk past 7pm as people are used to sleeping early in his village.
The phone call
All three call up Jatin at the same time and admit that they missed each other and the freedom they enjoy in the hostel. Jatin gets emotional and disconnects his phone.
As the boys’ hostel warden (Deepesh Sumitra Jagdish) puts it, empty hostel means increased wi-fi speed, no waiting for washroom, and no GPL on birthday. However, it also means no one to boast about your anime downloads, no music from adjacent bathroom and solitary cake cutting. Those who stay back struggle with negative and scary thoughts with no one around to cheer them up.
Jatin decides to go home for a few days and Rakhi helps him pack. The latter, however, is not going till he proves himself worthy and achieves something in life. Jatin tries to perk up his sullen mood by telling him where Chirag keeps his joint.
We understand from all of their nostalgia and conversations that life in the hostel not only gives them freedom from the tyranny of chores, but also, provides an escape from the pressures of life, the expectations of family and the restrictions on expression. They can be themselves in front of their friends.
The truth
Towards the end Ankit, Chirag, and Rupesh all return before the break ends. We see them all sitting in the quadrangle and chatting about their early return. They all try to make different excuses, but Jatin can see through all of them. He then exhorts them to tell the truth.
Ankit rattles out how difficult it is to live in a small town where everybody knows everybody. He explains his travail of how just to smoke he has to go out to a place where nobody can catch him. He fears being seen by the relatives more than the cops. It flusters him that even the distant paanwala, from whom he buys a cigarette, knows him.
Chirag sadly reveals that he has been impeached by his Tesla friends from the group that he founded, because he showed them ‘American Pie’. He was mistaken that they would be mature enough to understand it or him.
As for Rupesh, after a point, it gets too much for him to be near his family that cannot talk anything beyond dairy and dairy products. Besides, even his buffalo got a boyfriend.
As the boys hostel warden, very rightly, sums it up at the end that through the course of their stay at hostel and then home, the boys discover that the hostel is like a girlfriend who is neither demanding nor complaining. Each day, life in Hostel teaches something new. And most of all, it offers a four year relationship to everyone with no fear of break-ups.
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