Hotel Mumbai (2018)

A high-impact retelling of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008 by filmmaker Anthony Maras. Hotel Mumbai is understandably gory and violent, yet unlike many other movies where the bombs actually go off, it retains its tension like a wire.

In November 2008, 10 members of an Islamic Militant cell based in Pakistan carried out mass shooting and bombing attacks on Mumbai over four days. They killed many people and wounded more.

The film gets straight into the action with the terrorists entering Mumbai and opening fire on a train station and a restaurant. Determined to kill as many ‘infidels’ and Westerners as possible, they then enter and take over the luxury Taj Mahal hotel. They are propagandised with a dreadful hatred of non-Muslims and the film pulls no punches about the evil of terrorism. The terrorists go on a rampage of extraordinary violence and hatred.

Hotel Mumbai focuses primarily on the heroic staff trying to protect the guests, in particular a waiter, played with emotional power by Academy Award-Nominee Dev Patel, and the head chef, played by Anupam Kher. Jason Isaacs also stars as a Russian guest who is instrumental in saving the life of another guest. And upstairs a nanny is trapped with a crying baby on one floor, which adds almost unbearable tension, as the audience panics if they will be found or if the woman will kill the baby to save herself. This is the wild-card factor of true stories, you can’t depend on things working out.

Aided by a powerful central performance by Dev Patel, Hotel Mumbai, is told with self-confidence and humanity.