Hotel Mumbai Review

Suhansid Srikanth

Hotel Mumbai, directed by Anthony Maras is a dramatic thriller that revisits the horrifying tragedy of Mumbai terror attacks, predominantly on Hotel Taj. What starts as an intrusion with the arrival of terrorists inside the city quietly creeps into a tragedy until it explodes big time.

The recreation of the hotel and the whole event is spinechillingly real. If RGV's version of the story travelled alongside the character of Kasab and looked at the event as a cause.. Hotel Mumbai put it at front and makes a film out of what the people would have gone through. The fictionalized account and what happened are interestingly proportioned. The film do takes its own cinematic liberties but never does it misses its intention.

The first thing that hits you about the film is the unabashed portrayal of the horror and brutal reality of the incident. The chaos and air of panic that prevailed during the time of attacks are captured astoundingly real. The thrill in the ambience comes consistently coherent throughout the film. Peter McNulty and Anthony Maras's editing doesn't miss a drop in the depiction of the horror.

The film humanizes the story in the most dignified way without sounding jingoistic and one dimensional. There is even a character among the terrorists who would burst down to tears and call his father to say that he loves him the most. There is a British lady who would understand what valour and pride means to a Singh. There is a head Chef, a superb Anupham Kher, who manages the chaos yet remains to his core belief, "Guest is God".

Dev Patel plays Arjun with all his vulnerability. The performance makes you root for the character and increments the panic in the room. Armie Hammer plays a naive foreigner who is stuck in the tragedy unfortunately. Nazanin Boniadi delivers a brilliant performance as well. But what pulls it all together is the connect in the narration that this film keeps convincingly investing.

Bottomline:

Anthony Maras's "Hotel Mumbai" accounts the Mumbai terror attacks on Nov 26 in its most intense and dignified way possible. The chilling ambience and the recreation of panic and horror is brutally brilliant.

Rating : 3.5/5