Hotel California

If you are someone who just can’t tolerate a movie like Trivandrum Lodge, then Hotel California may not be the right choice for you. Well the smallest description for Hotel California is that it’s the nonsense fun version of Trivandrum Lodge. The content will remind you about those old Priyadarshan comedies and a few new films, but the dialogs and situations written by Anoop Menon who literally teases everyone in the planet (including himself) makes the movie a good one time fun watch for that category of audience who doesn’t demand message in every film.

Well, the plot basically revolves around a pirated CD of an upcoming Malayalam movie “Hotel California” starring super star Premsagar. A guy in Cochin is asked to do the job smuggling the CD from Dubai and he approaches a smuggler Airport Jimmy for assistance. The confusions created at the arrival of the CD in the airport leads to a whole lot of problems for a lot of persons who were expecting something or someone in that flight. Hotel California is simply a fun ride along with these characters.

Well, the film cannot be called as unique, fresh or highly creative. What it offers is some good fun time at the theater by making fun of so many things which we see in news papers and television in an exaggerated way. The ruling party’s hidden activities, the useless police administration, the helpless star life, the smuggler lifestyle, the idiotic wishes of the upper class, the enlarged terrorists and many other slices of the present community is there and they have been insulted (in a fun sense) to the core. At many occasions Anoop Menon teases himself about the image he created after writing Trivandrum Lodge.

On screen, Jayasurya once again scores with scorching screen presence and cool dialog delivery. The next in the list is Saiju Kurup who did a fabulous job in his dual avatar. He conveyed the innocence of the Malayali and the rudeness of the politician correctly with smart dialog delivery. Another surprise package is Joju George who managed to make the audience ROFL with his comic timing. Anoop Menon doesn’t really have much screen time. The familiar faces in Anoop Menon films such as P Balachandran, Aparna Nair, Babu Naboothiri, Sukumari, Thesni Khan and Honey Rose are there. The new additions are Shankar, Sudheesh and Mariya Roya. Among this Shankar has performed really well as the businessman. Mariya doesn’t have much to do.

In the making, Aji John has handled the chaos smartly and the film doesn’t really lag at any point. The screenplay is quite fast and engaging with abundant adult content. Even with a nonsense story, Anoop is in no mood to show mercy over the moral side of society. The Anoop Menon style of intellect is there in the dialogs and also a certain level of coolness is also there. Cinematography of Jithu Damodar is smart and the music section including the back ground scores from Shaan Rahman is also impressive. Xian’s edits are fine and the VFX wasn’t that great.

Overall, Hotel California is nicely made nonsense that will surely make you laugh. The movie is rightly “A” certified for its adult content and it’s strictly not for kids. I am giving it a 3/5. It’s simple popcorn fun for Adults.