Hotel

Along with guest house this was the finest the ramsays came up with. Navin Nischol decides to build a Hotel in some desolate hill station & sends ranjeet to look for a suitable piece of land. Ranjeet cons Father agostino out of a cemetery pretending it will be an orphan home & sells on the land to nischol. This forms the first hour of the movie, very interesting though no horror.

once the Hotel is built all mayhem ensues! While today the movie seems unrefined even tacky, it hold a certain nostalgic charm from a time when movies were so much fun.

A great way to spend an evening, if ur a freak like me!

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.

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.

Decent music, almost good script, overall good plot and good performance by all. Its a decent retro musical horror movie which is worth watching. The overall concept of phate you shall reap what you sow is shown. Prema Narayan plays shaboo and I thought was most better looking compared to other actress. Ranjeet plays a manipulating man ready to get his work done by hook or by crook. Navin Nischal and Rakesh Roshan gave decent performance not much work given to lead actress apart from few songs and scenes. This is old school Ramsay brothers movie. It was a sleeper hit. Indivar and Usha khanna delivered exceptional songs specially pyar karte hum tumhe itna.

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...