This film was wonderful, to put it plainly. Framed in the lavish State Theatre (which I was late to, as I’d rocked up to the Capitol Theatre 8 minutes before it was scheduled to start, then had to bulk pretty hard to get to the State Theatre, which google informed me was a 13-minute journey by foot).
The film revolved around death – a process every one of us will encounter sometime – which you may think a gloomy subject, but on the contrary was quite humbling in Hotel Salvation.
A brief plot catch-up: Set in India, on the Ganges river near Varanasi, an old man arrives at a hotel (Hotel Salvation) with one plan: to die. It’s a place where those who are ready to die book in for a gentle stay before their soul “attains salvation” and leaves this life. He’s accompanied by his son, busy office-worker Rajiv, who is constantly trying to balance quality father/family time with the pressures of work, with the wedding of his only daughter Sunita on the horizon of his mind. The priestly manager of the hotel books Daya in for the maximum stay period of 15 days, who soon befriends hotel guest Vimla, who has been at the Hotel Salvation for 18 years. Daya embarks on journeys to Varanasi, bathes in the holy water of the river Ganges, almost dies in a touching father-son reunion of souls, and watches hit TV show Flying Saucer with other guests.
In Hotel Salvation, there are plenty of family-scenes of note, particularly during a festival and Daya’s rebellious granddaughter Sunita helps her grandfather let loose a little. However, the one who stays by Daya the longest is Rajiv, despite how busy he is and his constant pleads to go home with his dad. I remember particularly from the film, a poignant scene where to two are sitting peacefully on the edge of the Ganges, and Daya is contemplating what he’ll come back as in his reincarnation. At first he says he’ll be a lion, but then persists he’ll be a kangaroo (which got our Aussie audience laughing), namely because they have such spacious pockets that could fit plenty in – “food, children… anything.” When Rajiv commented that he’d have to be born in Australia and the pair broke into laughter, the audience followed tout suite.
The beauty in this film, I’d say, was the peace. It evoked such peace in the setting filled with bright colours on all the walls, the still shots, wavering music and calming b-roll really set the mood for passing. As I mentioned earlier, as a young person who isn’t quite ready to move on from life yet, and who has very little experience with death, Hotel Salvation was quite humbling for me, as I still try to comprehend age.
Hotel Salvation is screening at the Sydney Film Festival.
