It will produced by M.Renjith under the banner Rejaputra Films.
It will be a different cup of tea like the first one from the team.

Director of Photography is Shehnad Jalaal
and Art director is Prasanth Madhav and
Music by Gopi Sunder.

‘Hotel California’, in the film, is the name of a film starring superstar Prem Sagar (Anoop Menon) and all set for release. Prem Sagar, who has been delivering flops after flops, and his fans have been pinning hope on this one film. So, on the one hand we have people attempting to smuggle in, from the Gulf, a pirated CD of the yet-to-be released film; the CD is sent to Kerala through Rafeeq (Saiju Kurup), a young chap who’s working in the Gulf for his family. In the meantime, we have Jimmy (Jayasurya), a Kochi-based don and pimp who has undertaken to oversee that the CD gets smuggled safely. Rafeeq is advised to wear a burka to avoid trouble at the airport. We also have Tarun Singh Deol (Saiju Kurup in a dual role), an upcoming, corrupt young politician who is involved in a multi-crore scam along with his father and who plans to visit Kerala very secretly, clad in a burka, to escape the media and the cops. We also have a young, rich girl Kamala (Maria Roy), who’s only too happy to pay a fortune to bear a baby via artificial insemination and by accepting the sperm of a Bollywood superstar. There’s also the story of Aby Mathew (Shankar), a lecherous rich guy who wants to bed young television actress Swapna (Dhwani); Swapna accepts it for a big sum of money and is all set to take a break from her shooting to join Aby Mathew at his hotel room. There is also Bharath Chandran (Joju George), the police commissioner; the team of goons (led by Nandu) who want to make big money kidnapping Tarun Singh Deol and the former media guy Sasi Pillai (P Balachandran), who’s chasing Jimmy and shooting everything that happens around him, with an agenda of his own. All this and much more get mixed, in a funny manner, in ‘Hotel California’, which entertains at points and goes unimpressive at many other places too.

The performance side is all OK, the technical aspects well in tune. But on the script side, there are issues. The take off is good, but later, at some stage, things go out of control. There are too much happening and you don’t have the time to stop, watch something and keep laughing. The laughs, some of them good, don’t last long. It just goes on, you are engaged in watching it and when it all ends, you just get up, shrug your shoulders and walk away. I bet you won’t go to watch the movie once again… And you won’t share the jokes from the film with your friends and laugh over it the way you do with most comedy capers. That’s where it goes wrong. In total ‘Hotel California’ is passable fare, just passable fare…

Performance

Everyone is good; everyone has done justice to his or her role. I don’t think I need to point out the actors one by one; everyone has played his or her part quite convincingly. Joju George, Dhwani, Jayasurya and Saiju Kurup impress the most.

Technical aspects

Jithu Damodar has done a great job with his camera, while editing by Xian and art-work by Sajith Krishna is also good.

Music

Shaan Rahman delivers the kind of background score that’s required of the plot and the theme; Anoop Menon has penned the song, which is not bad either.

Script

Anoop Menon needs to be appreciated for trying his hand at all genres; but still, it’s to be noted that ‘Hotel California’ doesn’t come up to the level of his earlier works. He begins the story on a promising note and then, at a stage, with too many characters on board, he seems to go out of control and delivers a mishmash that fails to impress beyond a level…

Direction

For the director Aji John, ‘Hotel California’ definitely was a challenge. He had never done such a film and it’s not easy handling so many characters and so many narratives. To an extent he has done justice to the script (which itself has issues!), but on the whole the film ends up being just an average entertainer. But still, compared to his earlier ventures, ‘Hotel California’ is definitely better, from the direction perspective…

I am sure you’d say you’ve seen it all before; yes, there’s nothing new about ‘Neram’. It’s the story of young Mathew (Nivin Pauly), who loses his IT job and faces financial problems. To get his sister married off, he borrows money from Vattiraja (Simhaa). Days and months have passed; Mathew had failed to return Vattiraja’s money and had been asking for extensions. Vattiraja, who’d go to any extent to get his money back, has given him a final deadline.

The story takes place on the day Mathew is to give the money to Vattiraja. He sets out, to get the money from his friend and hand it over to Vattiraja. In the meantime, Jeena (Nazriya Nazim), his lover, to whom he is already engaged and whose father Johnykutty (Laloo Aalex) is now rather reluctant to get his daughter married off to a jobless guy, leaves her home to live with Mathew. Johnykutty, when he realizes this, goes off to the police station, lodges a complaint that his daughter has been kidnapped by Mathew and asks the Inspector Ukken Tintu (Shammi Thilakan) to find his daughter. The Inspector promises to find Jeena by 5 pm. Jeena is waiting for Mathew when a thug snatches her gold chain and runs away. Mathew is attending a call when another thug snatches the money that he is to give Vattiraja, from his hand, and runs away. In the midst of all this, Mathew’s brother-in-law (Joju) lands up, thinking of borrowing some money from Mathew to start a new business; he expects Mathew to get him the money by 5 pm. An impatient and irritated Vattiraja calls up and asks Mathew to come with the money by 5 pm or face dire consequences. What all follows forms the rest of the plot…

So you know what it is all about! It’s in a funny and interesting manner that the whole story is narrated; though there is a lag at certain places, you don’t get bored and sit through the whole thing. Added to this is the advantage that the film has a running time of just about 110 minutes. The narrative, the performances, the way the different streams are merged makes it all interesting and definitely worth a watch. But, as mentioned earlier, the film won’t appeal to family audience or to those who swear dislike for ‘new generation films’. Well, I don’t believe in such a kind of classification, but of course there’s no denying that there exists now a trend in Mollywood to follow the so called ‘new generation’ pattern and think that whatever is made in this pattern is good, trendy and ‘new cinema’. Cinema, ‘new generation’ or not, loses out when it has no substance. ‘Traffic’ and ‘Beautiful’ were good because they were good and not just because they ascribed to a particular pattern. The films had substance. There are many examples of filmmakers trying to ape this pattern and failing miserably. To be honest, ‘Neram’ is neither here nor there as regards this; it falls somewhere in between and is partially OK, but just about OK.

Performance

Nivin is good as Mathew; Nazriya has nothing much to do and looks good. I was just wondering why she is made to render dialogues in such an artificial and soft manner, sans all emotions. I liked Simhaa, though we have seen many such characters before. Shammi Thilakan is his usual self. Manoj K Jayan, who appears towards the end of the film, is his usual self and does justice to his role. The others don’t have much to do.

Technical aspects

Let me begin with a negative. Alphonse Puthran, who edits the film as well, should have seen to it, as the editor, that it is a bit slicker. The lag that comes up at places could and should have been avoided. Good work from the side of Anend C Chandran, the cinematographer.

Music

Background score suits the mood; songs composed by Rajesh Murugesan are trendy and would appeal to the youth. Anyway, the songs won’t stay in your memories for long; they’d simply get deleted from there once more such songs come up…

Script

Alphonse Puthran does justice to the script, in the sense that he pens the script in a way as suits the subject. He has put in ingredients that would appeal to the youth; he has handled the humour in a good way. Good work I’d say, on the script side…But next time, I would expect him to try out something new, something that’s not said before and choose a format that suits the subject…

Direction

Alphonse Puthran is in full control as the director. As a person with enough of technical experience, Alphonse manages to come up with a film that’s technically good and watchable. The lags are pardonable. But I sincerely wish Alphonse tries to do better next time. Such a director and technician can deliver good work if he chooses to do films with substance…

The film is an attempt to identify how and why Prithviraj(Daniel) and Mamta Mohandass( Rosy) were
disregarded by and isolated from both life and cinema and they pay a price to the cruel manners of the
Malayalam film industry.

1928 is the period ofVigathakumaran.kamals celluloid is set in the period encompassing the struggles
and pains that Daniel underwent in the making of the film and the tragic story of Rosy.The script is
based on the novel nashtanayika written by Vinu Abraham and the biography of J.C Daniel.

Prithviraj appears asJC Daniel and Mamta Mohandas Does the role of janet,wife to J.C.Daniel.

Sreenivasan,Nedumudivenu,Siddique,Irshad,Thampi Antony,T.G Ravi, Jayaraj Warrier are also included
in this movie.