‘Hotel Mumbai’ is a riveting and intense tour de force of filmmaking and establishes Maras as one of the most exciting new filmmakers.
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Due to the recent bombing in Sri Lanka, ‘Hotel Mumbai’ acquires a startling sense of relevance and immediacy. Directed by Australian director Anthony Maras, who has made a series of acclaimed shorts, the film is based on the 2009 documentary ‘Surviving Mumbai’ about the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India. The film focuses on the harrowing events taking place inside the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, where guests are trapped and the terrorists are gunning them down.
The ensemble cast is led by Dev Patel and Armie Hammer. Patel plays Arjun, a waiter at the hotel as well as a husband and father. Hammer plays architect David, who is accompanied by his Muslim Iranian-British wife Zahra, their infant son Cameron and his nanny Sally. The most memorable supporting character is head chef Hemant Oberoi (Anupam Kher), who, together with the other hotel employees, risks their lives to ensure the safety of the hotel guests. The movie shows that they are the true heroes.
The movie also devotes time to the terrorists and does not paint them as the typical Hollywood villains. Instead, they are shown to be brainwashed and impoverished youths following orders from their faraway superior through a microphone. One of them is doing it because his family needs money.
The movie is uniformly excellent in every department. There is not a single flaw. Patel, Hammer and Kher’s performances are pitch perfect. Maras has a masterful grasp on creating and sustaining tension and suspense, always keeping us at the edge of our seats. A rich and detailed production design an intensely palpable, almost uncomfortable, sense of realism as if we the audience were actually at the scene of the attacks itself.
In the end, the movie does not present any moralistic messages or simple takeaway; it just leaves us pondering what we just saw and, most importantly, to focus a lens of empathy on those who were not lucky to survive and the courage of those who helped others.
‘Hotel Mumbai’ is a riveting tour de force of filmmaking and establishes Maras as one of the most exciting new filmmakers.
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