HOSTAGES (Web Series/Hotstar) - An above average thriller with nothing extra ordinary or out of the box. (Review by Bobby Sing)

The new web series at Hotstar revolving around the family of a reputed doctor taken as hostage by a group of masked men is an official Hindi remake of the first season of a well-received Israeli series with the same title. It features Ronit Roy, Tisca Chopra, Dalip Tahil, Parveen Dabas and more playing the key roles with a political angle too, as the demand is to kill the Chief Minister on the hospital’s operation theater by the doctor in charge, the lady of the house Tisca Chopra.

A scene to scene, episode to episode and almost dialogue to dialogue adaptation of the original, HOSTAGES only partially delivers as a taut thriller as it takes too much time in its proceedings and doesn’t offer anything extraordinary or out of the box in its screenplay almost repeating the known things.

Without giving away the main twists, for instance, unexpected visitors to the house, the kidnappers romancing as well as fighting with each other, one developing soft corner for the young girl of the family, an uninvited intruder breaking in, the family members hiding secrets from each other and more are typical features included in the series, seen in many earlier attempts made on the same theme. Moreover the screenplay also has quite a few convenient twists where we witnesss the lead kidnapper moving out of the house frequently, easy accessibility to mobile phones and even computers within the home itself, informers being there in the hospital staff, plus the neighborhood and even the patrolling police officers being fooled without any difficulty (even after hearing gun shots).