Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2014


Hotal

Buy Hotal now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




'Hotal', also spelled as 'Hotel', is a 2014 Pakistani psychological thriller film, written and directed by Khalid Hasan Khan. It is claimed to be Pakistan's first psycho-thriller feature film. It was also tagged as the first Hindi feature film outside Bollywood. The film stars Meera, Humayun Gillani, Sadiq A. Khan, Neha Anil, Tariq Jamal, Baila Naz, Anees Raja, Nisa Jabie, Nasreen Jaan and Wiam Dahmani.

The film was released on 13 May 2016. Upon release, it received overwhelming negative reviews from critics and was a box office failure. The same year, critic Omair Alavi added the film in his list of 'Top Worst Pakistani films of 2016.'

Plot



The story resolves around an Indian girl Kashika (Meera) who is expecting her first child. Kashika's husband Naresh (Humayun Gillani) wants to have a son while Kashika wishes to have a daughter. She stays in a hotel, on the advice of her doctor. There she meets her sister (same mother, different father), who was never born. Mysterious and incredible events took place at the hotel, during which Kashika finds out the truth behind the whole scenario.

Cast



* Meera as Kashika

* Humayun Gillani as Naresh

*Sadiq A. Khan as Dr. Shaam

* Neha Anil

* Anees Raja

* Nisa Jabie

* Nasreen Jaan

* Baila Naz

* Wiam Dahmani (dancer in song ''Lakshmi Hoon Main'')

* Jasmine Sandlas (special appearance in song ''Mombatti'')

* Tariq Jamal

* Muskaan Jay

Soundtrack



Release



The film was released on 13 May 2016.

Reception



Critical reception

Omer Bashir of 'Dawn.com' gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote, 'In the end, while 'Hotal's plot failed to connect on any emotional level, it raises important questions about our film industry, the mainly homogenous titles it brings forth and the lack of diversity in roles offered to female leads.'

Tanveer Khadim, blogger of 'The Express Tribune' wrote, ''Hotal', the work of a New York Film Academy graduate, Khalid Hasan Khan, offered nothing surreal and nothing to write home about.' She concluded her review with upshot, 'All in all, 'Hotal' is a freaky product, not a spine-chilling psycho-thriller.'

Omair Alavi from 'HIPinPakistan.com' also criticized the film's plot and stated, ''Hotal' has all the ingredients of a psycho thriller except that the plot is beyond any logic whatsoever.' He also disliked the film's music and commented, 'One cannot end the movie review without reflecting on the three items numbers two songs and a dance sequence that beat even the 'gandasa'-endorsing cinema of the mid 90s in vulgarity. Its ironic that the Pakistani censor board didn't chop off these numbers, which were there only to add "colour" to the film.'

In his review on Stupid Six Pakistani movies of 2016, Omair Alavi placed the film on second number.

Box office

It collected Rs 0.7 million in its opening week.

Accolades



The film received an award for Best Film at the 3rd Delhi International Film Festival 2014, whilst Meera won the Best Actress Award.

See also



* List of Pakistani films of 2016

* Cinema of Pakistan

References



Category:2014 films

Category:Pakistani horror films

Category:2014 horror films

Category:Pakistani thriller films

Category:Pakistani mystery films

Category:Pakistani murder films

Buy Hotal now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 2014



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1106285761.