Hotel Mumbai

Hotel Mumbai

Starring Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher

Directed by Anthony Maras

The Story:
At the majestic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, high-end guests are treated like gods, and no expense is spared to make their stay perfect.  Waiter Arjun (Dev Patel) reports for work late, and is reprimanded by head chef Hemant Oberoi (Anupam Kher) for not wearing proper shoes, and is given shoes too small for him to wear.  Meanwhile, Muslim Iranian-British heiress Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi), her American husband David (Armie Hammer), their nanny Sally (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) and their infant son Cameron arrive at the hotel, along with ex-Spetznaz operative Vasili (Jason Isaacs), and about a thousand other people.

Outside the hotel, terrorists have waged war in Mumbai, attacking eleven different locations, and the Taj is next on their list.  As the guests eat and reside unsuspectingly, four young terrorists enter the hotel and start shooting and killing innocent patrons and workers.  Arjun, Oberoi, and other employees vow to remain in the hotel and try to protect their patrons and try to get them out alive, as they experience a living nightmare.

The Synopsis:
On November 26, 2008, ten terrorists from the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization waged a strategic terrorist attack on Mumbai, India.  They targeted twelve different locations in the town, and their reign of terror lasted a staggering four days - culminating at the prestigious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, where patrons were terrorized for days as the terrorists laid siege to the hotel.  Ten years later, first-time director Anthony Maras released "Hotel Mumbai" (based off the documentary "Surviving Mumbai"), and while the majority of the characters were fictionalized, the terror is all-too-real.  Very rarely does a film leave me on the edge of my seat, leaving me with an odd taste in my mouth where I feel like I never want to see the film again - not because it was bad (far from it), but because it was so visceral and real.  Maras managed to portray the film like I was a member of those patrons who were held hostage, and I didn't even realize until the end that I was caught in a vice-like grip to the story, and only breathed a sigh of relief at the end.  While some may find it exploitative, I found it a stirring, profound, prolific fictionalized story based on a true nightmare, a film that excellently drew me in from the start and refused to let me go.

Dev Patel plays waiter Arjun, who refuses to leave the Taj during the attack and help get people to safety, despite having a wife, young son, and child on the way at home.  Nazanin Boniadi and Armie Hammer play a wealthy couple who attend the Taj, and spend the film separated and in search of their nanny and infant child.  They all give great performances, and showcase true heroism in the face of pure evil, and all add important aspects to the film.  Even Jason Isaacs, who plays a philandering, opportunistic Russian former agent, has moments of bravery and courage, but all these characters were created for the film - none of them were real, except for one character. 

The only real-life person the film portrays is the head chef at the Taj, Hemant Oberoi.  Played by veteran actor Anupam Kher (who's had over 500 films to his credit), he serves as the antithesis of the terrorists - a man of pure heroism who refused to leave the Taj until all his guests were safe.  He epitomizes what the film is all about - bravery in the midst of impossible odds.  While there's other heroic figures, Oberoi was the only one who was actually there, and Kher carried the weight perfectly.

The film showcases what it would really feel like to be captive in the hotel, and was delivered perfectly by cinematographer Nick Remy Matthews, and co-editors Maras and Peter McNulty.  They make the film highly claustrophobic, and really draws you into the narrative in a personal way.  I knew the film was over two hours long, and I was wondering how it would keep my attention - it surely did, and while I felt like it was a bit long, I thought about how those poor people felt during days of fear, and I have no idea how they managed to survive that long.

The film also sheds light on some typical movie tropes (several phones die, but then again if they're trapped for days I can actually see that happening), and there's the danger of the crying baby throughout (there's several tense, tough moments featuring the baby and unsung actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey who plays the nanny where I felt my heart beating in my throat in fear of them getting found out), but it doesn't feel like a polished movie in that aspect.  The film even depicts racial stereotypes, as a wealthy older white woman accuses Boniadi's character Zahra of being in cahoots with the terrorists because she speaks the same language, but those notions are shot down (in a rather darkly humorous way).  Then there's the danger of the media, who covered the attacks in real time, and how they alerted the terrorists of events happening in the hotel that you see in several movies of this vein, and that itself was the small downfall of the film and seemed to really expedite the ending.

A film really manages to set itself apart when you feel emotion for not just the main characters, but side characters as well.  Seeing these people gunned down ruthlessly was extremely difficult to watch, and witnessing some of the truly moronic moments that led to other characters' deaths left me literally shouting at the screen.  It was then I realized that the film really grabbed me, and I knew that I was watching something more than just a regular movie.

The Summary:
Telling a true-life event may seem exploitative, but "Hotel Mumbai" didn't feel that way - instead it showcased true heroism in the face of evil, and was delivered in such a way that you felt like you were trapped with the patrons in the hotel.

The Score: A+