Starring: Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Alex Pinder
Distributor: Icon Films
Runtime: 123 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2019
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This Australian-Indian film is based on the 2009 documentary, “Surviving Mumbai” by Victoria Midwinter Pitt. It deals with the 2008 attacks that were centred around the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, India. The Director of the film is Australian, and much of the movie was produced in Adelaide. The film is the true story of the victims and survivors of the attack by members of the Islamic terrorist organisation, Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The film first sets the stage for the main attack by showing the terrorists getting ready for their siege which included opening fire on Mumbai’s crowded train station. Creating havoc along the way, the group moved through Mumbai to occupy the Taj Hotel, where the main siege took place.
Film of the siege of the Taj Hotel by the terrorists liberally mixes terror with humanity and heroism. Illustrating the latter, the staff of the hotel risked their lives for others, chief among them being the Head Chef, Hemant Oberoi (Anupam Kher), and his waiter, Arjun (Dev Patel), who took the lead role in the award-winning “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008). Half the victims of the attack were staff of the hotel.
Oberoi addressed his staff before they began to serve dinner, and during the meal four gunmen, intent on killing everyone burst in, and commenced a siege which lasted for three days. Throughout the attack, most of the hotel staff refused to leave their guests unguarded.
Heroism is also featured strongly among guests at the hotel which included a newly married couple (Armie Hammer, and Nazanin Boniadi) who made unimaginable decisions to protect the welfare of their newly born child, trapped in a room upstairs. Over the three days both guests and hotel staff fought valiantly to survive. The narrative accompanying the siege through the movie tightly focuses on their plight, and only some survived.
The film aims firmly at being a thriller, and in thriller-mode the illustration of terror is the film’s main concern. The violence it shows is bleak, graphic and brutal. The horror and intensity of the attack is brought vividly to the screen, and the film makes heavy use of eyewitness accounts that also serve to highlight multiple acts of kindness and courage. Just as a scene starts to create some kind of human understanding, often with a degree of warmth, the reality of what is happening forces the viewer to reassess, and urges confrontation of the cruelty and horror that is occurring, or about to take place elsewhere.
The tension of the actual attack is reinforced by the terrified reactions of those watching the siege outside the hotel, and those observing the events on news broadcasts – one of them being Arjun’s wife. The impact of the attack on guests staying at the hotel, and the fear of those outside are sustained cleverly by the direction of Anthony Maras who captures the horror of the events taking place in the hotel from multiple perspectives.
In many scenes, Maras attempts to understand the terrorists, but the violence of their actions, often sudden and unexpected, quickly draws the viewer back. This is a film that explores how horrific events impact on real people. As a result, the impact of the film becomes absorbed in those who are affected on the outside, as well as on the inside of the hotel. The film demonstrates excellent archival editing, where historical footage is nicely integrated into its scenes.
The movie is not politically oriented, and the credits tell us that the chief organiser of the siege has never been caught. The film conveys a powerful message, though, about the senselessness of brutal violence in whatever form and in whatever way it is rationalised. The film is not for the faint-hearted, but it is impactful, tense, and well-directed.
Peter W . Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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