Hotel Salvation

Filmmaker Shubhashish Bhutiani’s well-intentioned film offers some fresh insights into the mundane realities of existence (and non-existence) with its tentative gallows humor meditation on death and dying. Hotel Salvation is centered on aging schoolmaster Daya (Lalit Behl), who convinces his son Rajiv (Adil Hussain) that it is time for dad to shuffle off this mortal coil. Rajiv accompanies Daya to the titular hospice-cum-hotel, situated in the holy city of Varansi. The oddball conceit here is that you only get 15 days to die and thus be graced by holy salvation; if you fail to croak during that time, you have to rebook under a different name. Featuring fantastically dreamy cinematography by Michael McSweeney and David Huwiler, Hotel Salvation follows Daya’s philosophical laments about being fed up with the world and wanting to pass on to the next one as soon as possible. Recommended. (M. Sandlin).