With a new year of cinema just coming in bloom, it’s rare for me to wholeheartedly peg a film as my ‘favourite’ so far. Call it an impulsive claim, but Anthony Maras’ 2019 docu-thriller, Hotel Mumbai, managed to do just that.
Based on the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and the horrors laid upon the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Maras creates a heart-wrenching dramatization that focuses on both the stories of the innocents and the attackers themselves.
The film kicks straight into gear with its opening scenes, introducing us to the terrorists landing on the city shores. An ominous voice overlay of their leader, reaffirming their status as soldiers of religious virtue, warns viewers of the tragedies to come.
Cue in the guests and staff of the Taj Hotel, where we have (ever the crowd-pleaser) Dev Patel, starring as the fictionalized Arjun, a Sikh waiter striving to make ends meet for his wife and child. His appearance in shabby slippers is immediately reprimanded by Hemant Oberoi, a world-class chef with only the highest standards of excellence for the hotel.
Acutely devoted to the finest service, Oberoi gets his staff ready to serve the upcoming VIP guests – from which we meet a happy family of three: the recent parents David (played by Armie Hammer) and Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi) with their baby, accompanied by their nanny Sally (played by Tilda Cobham-Hervey).
Among these guests is the intimidating Vasili, a Russian character played by Harry Potter’s Jason Isaacs.
It doesn’t take long for the film to escalate into a series of terrifying attacks, starting at small-scale locations; eventually leading citizens bolting towards the Hotel’s doors.
Unfortunately, the large crowd veils these terrorists as they snake their way into the establishment, setting the scene for the film’s primary plot.
To call this movie an ‘intense’ experience would be an understatement. Maras doesn’t pull any punches, displaying a harrowing spectacle of gunshots, deaths, explosions – and the fear-stricken responses that follow.
But these are in no way cheap thrills; the excellent ensemble performances exhibit a beautifully tragic atmosphere of human sadness, trauma, and terror that a viewer can’t help but vicariously share.
Photo courtesy of Kerry Monteen.
The cinematography adds its own grit to the film, with fast-paced camera movements, intimate close-ups, and an occasional weave of actual 2008 footage that’ll keep you gripped to the edge of your seat. As characters attempt to hide for their lives, the film’s claustrophobic moments effectively drag you in; as their breathing stifles and anxieties rise – so does yours.
As far as being true to the actual events go, Oberoi is the only ‘real’ figure represented; though Patel’s Arjun is partly inspired by real-world heroes, composed of several waiters who worked to bring victims to safety under the hotel’s siege.
The filmmakers also based much of their information on the 2009 documentary, Surviving Mumbai, carried out ‘hundreds of hours’ of interviews among survivors and witnesses, and were even given access to transcripts of the intercepted calls between the terrorists and their handlers.
As a result, plenty of the movie is still true-to-life, albeit with typical Hollywood liberties. These fictionalised choices, however, barely take away from the film’s raw cinematic experience; it’s hardly an airy-fairy watch, but one that truly pries at the ugly realism of such tragic events.
An intriguing element that Maras adds to the film is the dimension given to the terrorists themselves – he in no way attempts to soften their actions, but shows how these are ordinary people led astray, with their own human problems of family, poverty, and struggles with morality.
David Erlich of IndieWire describes it best in an excerpt of his review below:
“…Maras’ script even affords the murderers a measure of humanity without absolving them of their sins. The terrorists are almost as scared as everyone else, instilling fear in others in order to obliviate their own. They tell jokes. They call their parents. The movie doesn’t ask its audience to forgive the killers, or to sympathize with them in the slightest; it just argues for the unrealized potential of these lost young men, who were nurtured by a hatred that didn’t come to them naturally.”
For cinephiles and casual movie-goers alike, Hotel Mumbai is a compelling must-watch. It’s not perfect – there are needlessly frustrating ‘dumb’ decisions on part of the characters (if you’re planning to sneak around the killers unnoticed, you might want to take off your heels, for one thing) but the pitfalls are few and far between, and hardly graze the rest of the movie’s riveting presentation.
If your jaw doesn’t drop at least one point in the film, you’ll at the very least be moved by the outstanding cast, and the overall authentic tale of heroism and persistence.
All photos courtesy of Thunder Road Pictures.