Hostages: The Web Series You Need to Watch if You Like Thrillers with an Emotional Touch

Sudhir Mishra was the name that brought me to Hostages, a Hotstar web series. With movies like Chameli, Hazzaron Khawaishein Aisi to name few, the expectation was quite high from Sudhir Mishra, who was playing a maiden role as a director of a web series.

To begin with, it was an official adaptation of an Israeli web series with the same name. With Tisca Chopra and Ronit Roy in the lead roles, the series has a set of new age young actors and some notable senior actors like Parvin Dabas and Mohan Kapoor in important roles.

The plot revolves around a family where Tisca is the doctor who has a lovely family. The husband is the principal of a school, son studies in the same school, a young daughter, a pet dog, and a big house.

What else do you need to have a perfect setting? Well, everything soon turns dark in this so-called perfect family when Ronit Roy comes with his team to capture the house.

The beginning shows Ronit Roy as an able cop and soon we hear him as the masked gunman who is leading the pack of attackers.

As the audience, we are confused about why this cop has planned this hostage. Soon, it will be revealed that his business is with Tisca Chopra, the doctor who is assigned to operate the CM.

The plan of Ronit Roy’s team is to blackmail the doctor by captivating her family and make her kill the CM as a part of the operation procedure.

Coming to the plot, we can say that it was gripping yet elongated at some places. We all knew the act of murder will be done, we were just waiting for it to happen. From the very first point, we know the black masked team is not regular criminals and will not kill anyone. They are just there to threaten. The house arrest people are roaming about in the house, slouching on the sofa, having meals as if they have some unwanted guests in their house.

Shaina, the daughter of the house seems to develop an amicable connection with one from the team. The son is a spoiled brat running his own business in school. He hacks papers and creates all nuisance in the school and obviously gets out of issues because he is the son of the principal.

The principal is seen as the most irresponsible person. Coming from an educational background, he gambles and loses his house to some rowdy money lenders. And by the end of the season, you will get to know more about his irresponsible decisions.

Tisca all over maintains an image of a poised doctor who is seen as the only sorted person in the family. In the edgiest situations, she tries to find out the most logical solutions.

The family actually reveals the current urban families who all are connected on a very virtual level. As the story evolves in the background of the murder plan plot, there reveal stories about the family members. Each has its own share of dark secrets that are not known to each other. The ideal picture of a happy family seems to go vague as there is so much non-transparency prevailing amongst each other. Fragmented emotions caked with a coating of luxury.  

We can say that there were many illogical moments like two of the people in the attacker team are in love. They do not miss an opportunity to find a room to become desperately intimate. We are not clear the reason behind this couple being in the team till the end.

Ronit Roy and the other guy have their own personal reasons which are justified to some extent. The ending seemed forced sync. It seemed by hook or crook they wanted to show some connection. A mystery video is stored in a hard disk. Though the plot has tried to bring a conclusion of that video truly it is anything close but convincing.

The return of the ex-bf of the daughter hoped to bring in some major twist in the plot. But, disappointingly there was nothing that we didn’t expect. Later an accident then mysterious recovery from the accident actually confused the audience about the presence of the character.

Other factors that tried to give masala to the plot is an illicit relationship of a senior doctor and nurse, smuggling of oxygen, the wrong past of the CM, the sick wife of Ronit Roy but sadly no plot was strong enough.

The plan of killing the CM is aborted out of humanity and all the reasons for the team to kill him vanished in the air.

All of a sudden the doctor is found running to find the motive of Ronit Roy as she is convinced that he is not a petty criminal.

Then soon, Tisca’s family gets reunited and people are seeing her relaxed as nothing has happened there. Around 4-5 days of house arrest and after that showing the protagonist is blow drying her hair, no we expect better ways to represent the idea that everything is out of danger now.

We don’t blame the actors. They have tried their best to do their part. Scattered plot and unanswered twists made the plot loose.

Even if you like the season since the beginning, the ending will surely disappoint you.

When Sudhir Mishra was interviewed about his web series, he said that he had made a better version and the shots are better and technical. He invited the comparison but also stated that it was not exactly copied. As per his ideas, he tried to add elements that will make the plot interesting to the Indian audience. That is supposedly the reason behind his decision to add an emotional base to a thriller.

With all said and done, we are sure Sudhir Mishra had better plans for the series, but somehow the standards of web series have gone really high in the last few years. The viewers have got a better taste of thrillers and that’s why this effort has not been that highly accepted as expected.