This film marks the "riches-to-rags" point of Anoop Menon and Jayasurya duo filmmaking. The writing by Menon is simply absurd. Taking a famous song (Eagles' Hotel California) and ripping its lyrics and bold interpretations out of the horizon is too lame and not at all eligible for a cinema script. Adding certain slapstick points and a grueling plot won't do ANY good to the movie which has enough glitz and glamor to mask its gimmickry. Instead, what is the outcome? A poor attempt at modern version of "comedy of errors."
It talks about different bunches of imbecile Malayali characters trying to make money the easier way by duping, kidnapping, and booby-trapping famous, rich and sometimes innocent people. Somewhere between, identities are lost, wrong people are kidnapped and anti-piracy advertisement shoots up. When they all get mixed up, a new definition of epic madness is born. Also, there is one unrelated story about IVF, which goes to the mountains to please you. Though, it fails terribly.
Jayasurya isn't brave at all to portray the role of a careless pimp; his swagger doesn't help either. The plot demands are low, yet the characters are written with absolute stupidity, played by veterans. This is so maddening to make Shankar play a nymphomaniac. Very bad. Other brilliant actors are wasted, mostly because the cranky screenplay makes them look like sissies. For newness, female artists are foul-mouthed cracking extremely vulgar, mallu jokes relating to reproduction and like. Miserable!
Music is the only thing worth appreciating in this botched attempt to move a step further in coming-of-age Malayalam cinema. Bringing in BDSM, forgettable English phrases, modernity, and the lawless virtues of the YOLO generation is a good thought, but this is what is yielded when two-movie old amateurs make a movie.
With the plot so disturbing, having multiple, incompatible elements (kidnapping, laundering, terrorism, cupid, porn, artificial insemination and piracy), Hotel California gets entangled in its own plot diversions. Almost all plot twists seemed like they were forced, so as to produce a fatal and clinging climax. It is high time these filmmakers understand that people who watch movies have immense love for details. It has hundreds of goofs and illogical references to movies, celebrities, and social terms. Dialogs are borrowed from old Malayalam classics. And yet, it advises full concentration of viewers. Poor screenplay, poor cinematography & loads of idiotic masala humor, that is what this crime comedy drama is. Moreover, bragging about the movie you've made erstwhile is the most demeaning thing a filmmaker can ever do. To conclude, the 2-hour long cinema wreck has nothing original to boast off. 1/10.
BOTTOM LINE: Hotel California is a movie-holic's worst nightmare. Not recommended at all.
