It’s easy to think of dropping a child off to boarding school, but what about dropping a parent off? That’s the treatment given to Hotel Salvation, a father-son drama that will have you giggling often even though the subject matter is quite grim.
The father (played by Lalit Behl) decides it is time to die and he must live out his final days in a hotel on the banks of the River Ganga — considered holy by Hindus — just as his own father had done. The reluctant, overworked and submissive son must now abide by his wishes and ferry him to the retreat.
The caveat: when he checks into the bare building, he’s on a deadline — die in 15 days or leave, says the manager, Mr Misra.
It is also here that the father finds comfort in a friendship with a woman — played by Lalit’s real wife, Navnindra Behl — who has beaten this 15-day rule and stayed on for 18 years. The actors’ chemistry on screen is touching.
Hotel Salvation, however, is as much about death as it is about life. The film talks of resolving the grudges that we stack upon our shoulders carefully, as if there were part of a pile of gold, not realising the burden we carry. At one point, the son (Adil Hussain of Life of Pi fame) complains that his father, the headmaster, had been so strict with him that he’d beaten the dreams out of his younger self. He’s also resentful that this once-grouchy old man pampers his grandchild and spoils her rotten.
Palomi Ghosh, who plays the granddaughter, Sunita, gives a delightful performance as a young woman going against convention by taking up a job and being independent, rather than getting married to someone of her parents’ choosing.
It’s a light-hearted film that will make you call home and say hello.
