Deadlier and more destructive acts of terrorism have been committed in recent
years, but the 2008 Mumbai attacks were probably the most successful at
instilling sheer terror. Part of the horror was the vicious simplicity of it
all: teams of armed gunmen shooting civilians indiscriminately. The coordinated
attacks paralyzed the city, culminating in the siege of the venerable Taj Mahal
Palace Hotel. The tragedies and atrocities of those dark days are vividly
recreated in Anthony Maras’s Hotel Mumbai,
which opens this Friday in New York.
This
is not an action movie, but there is a weird parallel with Die Hard when Arjun starts his day having footwear issues. The hard-working
Sikh is already expecting his second child, so he could not afford to miss a shift.
Initially, the head chef Oberoi dismisses him for the day, but he relents,
allowing him to borrow a pair of his ill-fitting shoes instead, thereby
establishing him as both a stern taskmaster and a figure of compassion.
Together, Arjun, Oberoi, and the rest of the Taj staff will do their best to
save their guests when the terrorists start executing everyone, floor by floor.
Of
course, there is a rather diverse clientele in the hotel that day. We soon meet
the well-heeled Muslim Zahra and her Yankee newlywed David, who have a newborn
baby and a British nanny up in their suite. Russian oligarch Vasili has two
escorts waiting in his room, but the terrorists will get to them first. When
news of the attacks first reaches the Taj they will admit a group of survivors,
including Australian tourists Bree and Eddie. Unfortunately, the first pair of
backpack-wearing gunmen also gain entrance with the group of refuge-seekers.
Hotel Mumbai is a harrowing
film that will make many viewers uncomfortable (in ways that they should be
discomfited). It is much like One Less
God (a.k.a. House of War),
another Australian film dramatizing the attacks in the Taj Mahal, but Maras and
co-screenwriter takes it further and deeper. To their credit, they never
obscure the Islamist ideology of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists committing the mass
murders, with logistical support from elements within the Pakistani
intelligence service. Chillingly, we hear a steady stream of the brainwashing
encouragement from their Svengali, “Brother Bull,” which sounds like
hate-speech seasoned with socialist class warfare.
Maras
also strikes a good balance in terms of the violence presented on screen. A
great many innocent hotel worker are executed at point-blank range, right
before our eyes, but probably just as many are shot off-screen. As result, the
film should not be accused of white-washing anything, but neither is it an
endless cycle of death and sadism.
Dev
Patel probably does his best work since Slumdog
as Arjun. We can feel in our own guts the profound degree of his fear,
which makes it so compelling each time he knuckles down and torques up his
courage. Yet, if anyone emerges as an awards contender from Hotel Mumbai (an unlikely prospect,
given the subject matter), it would be Anupam Kher, who radiates gravitas and
gruff humanism as Oberoi. He practically becomes the personification of the
stately hotel’s soul.
As
the four primary on-camera terrorists, Amandeep Singh, Suhail Nayyar, Yash
Trivedi, and Gaurav Paswala are terrifyingly young-looking and chillingly blood
thirsty. Jason Isaacs chews up the scenery and everything else that isn’t
nailed down as the lecherous Russian, but he still bears watching. Nazanin
Boniadi and Tilda Cobham-Hervey have some quite poignant moments (distressing,
even) as Zahra and Sally, the nanny, but Armie Hammer is blandly vanilla
playing her blow-dried American husband.
