USTAD HOTEL

             Ustad hotel is a beautiful new generation movie created by Anwar Rasheed and Anjali Menon. It lived up to the people’s expectation from its director Anwar Rasheed.  It’s a pure entertainer filmed without any false exaggeration or unnecessary show-offs.

            Like all his previous works, ‘Ustad hotel’ also begins from the childhood of its hero. In fact it is even said to be beginning from the history of the naming of the hero (resembling to ‘Rajamanikyam’ and ‘Chottamumbai’). This part might have been included in the script by the director’s influence. The right mixture of entertainment by Anwar Rasheed and the beauty of the script by Anjali Menon is the backbone of the movie.

            The movie differs from conventional Malayalam entertainers by the emotional attachment the audience feel to the story and its characters. This is what the script of Anjali Menon had done to the movie. The movie represents characters of a wide range of ages. So, almost all people find their representative in the movie.

            There’s a saying, ‘the best way to one’s heart is through food’. The movie focuses on a family in hotel business for a few generations. The story is of three generation of the family. Since foods, tastes and recipes are greatly involved in the movie; location has been wisely selected at Calicut.

            Like most of the new generation Malayalam films, ‘Ustad hotel’ doesn’t come to end on a specific scene which can be distinctively said as its climax. Instead the climax is visualized through a series of scenes involving the changes coming over to the main characters and hence, to the story.

            Although beautifully written, the script fails to explain distinctively why ‘Abdul Razzak’ (played by Siddique) is not close to his father ‘Karimikka’ (played by Thilakan). It also takes too much time to explain the ’Madhurai episode’. Though the film starts with saying about Feyze's (Played by Dulquer Salmaan) sisters, they are not strongly used in the story.

            The cinematography by S Lokanathan was excellent. He did it so well that the audience feel like moving with the characters of the movie. An excellent art has been displayed through the background score. It forms a bond between the audience and the story by making them feel all the sentiments involved.

            Hats off to the crew of ‘Ustad hotel’ for such a wonderful movie.