Hotel Mumbai

“Fuck your prayers. That’s what started this shit.” One of the characters retorts to the head chef praying for his guests as they are escorted to a safer place. A hostage recites the Salat at gunpoint, hearing which the terrorist is not able to shoot her. Tourists and guests are being shot with a machine gun and their blood splatters like they were ripe tomatoes being thrown. The gruesome and tragic scenes are the closest you will get to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The film follows the close encounter, step by step, that happened on that dreadful night. And watching it in itself was terrifying and sorrowful; I can’t imagine what the 200 plus hostages must have gone through as they were rescued. The staff of the five stars hotel known for its service continued to treat their guests as Gods even under these dire circumstances. Almost half of the 35 staff lost their lives saving them.

The cinematography is so good that it brought back the images I watched on the television 10 years back. I remember the news channels covering the whole attack showing live visuals of the Hotel Taj Mahal from the Gateway of India. The progression of the film as the terrorists scan every inch of the hotel killing anyone in sight is tense and scary. This is a very different experience compared to, say, a horror film. There is something fatal, instinctive and depressing about it when human life seems so fragile at the gunpoint of extremists. The sets of the interiors of the Taj with the background score make the film so real, it’s as if you are in the hotel. 

 Dev Patel gives a great performance as he adds another jewel to his repertoire of work. But the rest of the cast including Nazanin Boniadi, Tilda Cobham Hervey, Anupam Kher and the boys who played terrorist,s match the high standards to make a consistent film of high intensity.

Rating – 4 / 5