Hotel

This is one of my all time favorite movies, which I happened to watch quite late. I really credit the directors who were creative enough to work upon a rather simple but truly sinister plot. The story has its own charms due to serene and breathtaking locations, which though beautiful are evil in every sense. I always begin to feel the glum atmosphere of 'Hotel' going sicker as each second passes by.

The film starts with two very rich but surprisingly over aged unmarried dudes Suraj (Navin Nischol) and Vijay (Rakesh Roshan). It appears that Suraj was once a photographer of zero repute who worked hard to make his ends meet. He had an affair with a rich lass Sushma (Neelam Mehra). However, their relationship is despised by Sushma's father, who compels Sushma to end her affair with Suraj. A helpless Sushma leaves Suraj heartbroken.

Suraj and Vijay are business partners and want to build a beautiful hotel at an iconic location of Balipuram, a scenic southern Indian hill station. For this they hire a real estate agent Chhagan Patel (Ranjeet). Chhagan is a cunning man and is after milking his employers. He goes to Balipuram and discovers a plot of his interest. The plot is a graveyard of old and forgotten pals and is looked after by a pious old priest Father Benevolent. Chhagan tells Father Benevolent that he and his friends want to build an orphanage but are unable to get a piece of land. Chhagan involves several other people of high repute in the deal, who pose as his friends and convince Father Benevolent to sign the transfer papers. Father Benevolent does so not really knowing that Chhagan is a man of lies and has made double agreement.

When Father Benevolent comes to know that Chhagan is building a hotel on that very piece of land, he questions him of his intentions. However, he is helpless and weak. After few words of regret, he dies of cardiac arrest right before the fraudsters. So Chhagan gets the piece of land for free and sells it to Suraj and Vijay for a handsome amount of 50,000 USD. Quite impressed by Chhagan's versatility, Suraj assigns him construction work as well.

Vijay's good for nothing brother Sanjay (Prem Krishan) is a rolling stone. Vijay asks him to go to the construction site and keep track of the ongoing developments. Sanjay comes to the site and soon comes to know of Chhagan's sinister secret. He somehow finds the copy of double agreement in Chhagan's room and hides it somewhere in a shed. Chhagan and his friends find Sanjay in the shed, beat him to death, and bury his corpse in the shed.

A few days later Vijay arrives at Balipuram, but Sanjay is nowhere to be found. Vijay thinks he might be away somewhere as always. Cupid strikes Vijay when he meets Vandana (Bindiya Goswami) during his trip. They soon fall in love and begin woolgathering. Few days later Suraj comes to Balipuram where he is greeted by all.

On the inaugural ceremony, several unanticipated guests arrive. Hell breaks loose when the undead rise from their graves and fall upon those who changed their resting place to a hotel. The spirits won't stop until the last sinner has been punished to death.

The story as you can see is quite simple and rightly goes ahead with the versatile and seasoned performances of Rakesh Roshan and Navin Nischol. Neelam Mehra and Bindiya Goswami have no much part to play as they mostly pose themselves as love lorn young women, fancying about their future love life. The worst things to discuss here are Mehmood and Rajinder Nath, who have annoyed the audience way too badly. While Mehmood keeps a romantic eye on Rajinder Nath under the spell of a magical love potion, Rajinder Nath looks jaded and under performs as one would expect.

Overall, the flick has several creepy moments that make 'Hotel' sick and difficult to avoid. The audience would love to see the sinners dying in the most gruesome ways. 'Hotel' has gained cult status due to the effect it casts upon the viewers while they watch it on a sullen afternoon or in the silence of the night. If you really want to know what is this all about, you must watch it to believe it!

I had first seen this film more than 15 years back. Recently I got the film on VCD (although there is a DVD out there as well), and thought I'd revisit it in light of the current interest in Indian horror films. Well, the story is quite interesting:

An entrepreneur asks his assistant to go to a hillside area and acquire some land for building a hotel. The assistant is led astray by the corrupt contractor- builder, who convinces him that they can make a huge profit if they build the hotel over an old Christian cemetery. They dupe the priest in charge of the cemetery, telling him they need the land for building an orphanage. They also implicate some government officials, by bribing them. In all this manipulation, the contractor-builder guy is helped by his foxy secretary, whose sex appeal is often used to their benefit. When the construction starts, they dig up all the corpses (some very bizarre faces there) and skeletons, and dump them all into a mass grave, marked only by some stones. However, the spirits of the dead are apparently outraged at this desecration, and seek revenge.

Sounds like a perfect setting for a Fulci-style zombie epic, right? Yes, only this is directed by the Ramsay brothers, and the country is India. So while we do get some cool zombie scenes, blood and gore, and creepy atmosphere...we also get 4-6 (I lost count) song-and-dance numbers and cringe-inducing 'comedy relief' that the film could have done well without (except maybe the disco-ish number performed by Ms. Narayan, at the inauguration of the hotel. Or am I just partial to the charms of this under-used Bollywood beauty?).

Still, for the adventurous cult/horror buffs amongst you, this should be reasonably entertaining. As long as you don't go in expecting a typical zombie film, and keep your expectations low...

Leave aside the amateur scenes, dull and juggling screenplay, and lack of money of this movie. And also leave aside if it's a B or C grade, as per the cinema standards. Let us talk about the concept and thought, and i would definitely applaud Ramsay brothers for their different approach to showcase a Horror genre movie; where it changed lanes with Bollywood cinema presenting the same and repetitive attempts of action, drama and unnecessary tragedies used humongous number of times at that time.

Yaa, for sure it had force-fed and dangling songs, and comic fillers, but i can totally understand for they were the need (the year 1981). You invest in lacs and if their's nothing in return, your money is in trench. Because the Indian audience of that time just can't digest a film without such elements.

Anyways, let me comeback to what gave me a trigger of delight. Of-course, horror dramatic scenes borrowed from different other cult-classic movies from John Carpenter or Sam Raimi. Like the Zombie scenes, the rise of hand from the buried dead or tangled situation of antagonists. Their is no God filled moments of showing Cross or Om, their is nowhere protagonist fighting off the evil and also nothing which makes something powerful out of nowhere. You reap what you sow, and that's what happen to the bad guys; but in a mystery-full and apprehensive way.

Definitely an above average film, as per me.

Starts off as a melodrama as a land developer in Donald Trump category scams an old priest out of his land and the cemetery he's caretaking. Turns into a crime drama with a murder, and then drifts into horror and comedy with lots of pratfalls. And let's not forget the musical numbers, which keep stopping the movie. Now, I hate musicals and in movies like these I tend to skip the musical parts, but the song and dance number with Prema Narayan in hot pants at the halfway mark almost had me running to take a cold shower. Helluva climax to the dance though. There's a shooting that leaves an animal actor looking realistically dead, allowing me to wonder if the dog was really hurt. However, back to the story; plotwise, this movie just meanders all over the landscape, and the comedy parts just don't work. Unless you're a fan of the stars or a completist, you should probably just avoid, as it seems longer than it is. There's a reason these things never took off in America. Hotel needs to be seriously edited, and the plot needs focus. It was a chore for me to get through, so I can't really give it a higher score.

Watched Hotel and it did have some ahead of the time plot. Rakesh Roshan and Ranjeet have the more important roles in the movie. Navin Nischol does support them ably. Mahmood does a cameo with comedy which is quite funny. Bindiya Goswami and Prema Narayan have pivotal roles and have acted well. The horror treatment is good as it does ease in to the plot to eventually unfold in a more interesting manner. There are some unusual situations that come up in this movie which are not often seen in Bollywood movies. For 1981 this is a great experiment by the Ramsay brothers. One which doesn't disappoint the audience. A good movie which is a one time watch.