Hotel Mumbai Review

Hotel Mumbai is a harrowing depiction of the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008. The film shows how 10 men from an extremist Pakistani organisation led co-ordinated attacks on multiple locations across the city, in which an estimated 174 people died and over 300 were injured. While we get brief glimpses into the different areas that were impacted, the story here centres around the bloodshed that occurred at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

This luxurious 5 star hotel is the crème de la crème, and prides itself on the motto of ‘guest is God’. Indeed, in the first 10 or 20 minutes, we see one of the hotel managers going crazy that the bath water is not at 40 degrees exactly. But the hotel and their staff’s devotion to ensuring their A-list cliental are taken care of is an important and recurring theme throughout.

Like many films that recreate major historical events, we follow a number of different storylines that run congruent to one another and at times interweave. Dev Patel plays the humble and caring Arjun, a waiter who has a wife and child, with another on the way. I have to say, I love everything Dev Patel is in. He seems to make every film he’s in better and he’s one of the most likable actors in the world. This film, gladly, proves no exception. He works under the head chef Hemant, played by Anupam Kher. A man who has no room for negotiation when it comes to putting the guest first. This philosophy of the hotel workers means that when the attacks happen, they’re willing to stick things out and look after them in the most horrific of circumstances.

This is a tough and upsetting watch. This a film on par with Schindler’s List or Requiem for a Dream, when you’ve seen it once you’ll most likely not want to see it ever again. I found the violence in this film genuinely shocking and, at times, too much to watch. However, the sad truth with films like this is that this unfortunately was the reality. When the terrorists are firing their guns, it is completely indiscriminate. Anyone and everyone can be killed, and many were.

I never created this blog to get political, but a major issues I’ve always had with cinematic depictions of Islamist terrorism is that we never really get to explore the Muslims who are victims of these attacks. The best scene in this film, by far, is when the character, Zahra, is about to be killed and chooses her last words to be Islamic prayers. This makes the terrorist stop in that moment as, although he shows no forgiveness or remorse for what he’s done, it dawns on him that he has enacted violence and murder against people of his own faith. I do hope, in time, we get normal depictions of Muslims in cinema too. In my humble opinion, not every Muslim character needs to be a terrorist or someone who is having an internal conundrum with their religious beliefs. Sometimes, we just need a normal person who happens to be Muslim, Zahra was that.

At times, the production value of this film felt quite low and seemed like more of a TV film. But this is compensated for by its daringness to explore religious identity and stereotyping, which lots of films shy away from. I felt really emotional when Arjun has just been the victim of racist stereotyping by one of the English guests. Instead of berating the elder lady, he shows compassion and tries to explain to her why he, as a Sikh man, wears a turban. He understands that this lady, as many do, panic during crises and lose their composure and moral sensibilities. But in order to pull through the most difficult of situations like this, as Arjun explains, it has to be done together. We need more Arjuns.