Hard to stomach, even harder to forget

Rating: 7/10 (3 April 2019)

"Hotel Mumbai" (2018 release from Australia; 125 min.) is a movie about the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. As the movie opens, we are reminded the film is "Based on True Events" and we are informed it is "November 26, 2008, Mumbia, India", as we see 10 guys in a Zodiac boat about to arrive in Mumbai. Meanwhile, we see a guy getting ready for work, as a staff member of the famous Taj Hotel. Arriving at the Taj is a celebrity couple and their young son and the nanny. They are treated like royalty. Meanwhile the gang of 10 is disbursing to various sites in Mumbai. Two of them arrive at the overcrowded CST Train Station in South Mumbai, and before we know it, they start firing in the crowds. At this point we are 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments: this is the feature-length debut of Australian director Anthony Maras. Here he brings exactly what happened in the infamous Mumbai terrorist attacks (in plural). While I generally knew about his (mostly as it relates to what happened at the Taj Hotel), I didn't know much about the rest of it. Frankly, it is shocking to see it playing out as it did. First and foremost, I can't even put into words how shocking and sickening it is to see these cold-blooded murderers kill so many innocent people in such a savage way. It makes this movie hard to stomach, and at one point I almost left the theater. But ultimately I decided to stick it out, and I'm glad I did. The real heroes are a handful of brave men who decide to stand up against the terrorists and try and protect the hotel guests as best they can. The ineptitude of the Mumbai police and Indian special forces is as shocking as it is infuriating. Beware: in addition to the multiple execution-style killings, the movie contains quite a bit of hand-held camera footage. Maras does a great job of conveying the sense of panic which rose in the streets of Mumbai. Dev Patel plays Arjun, the Taj Hotel staff member, with the grace and dignity that we are used of him. The only other "big name' in this production is Armie Hammer, playing one of the hotel guests. Also noteworthy is the excellent original score, courtesy of Volker Bertelmann (a/k/a Hauschka). Last but not least: not a single mention is made in the movie that this terrorist group came from Pakistan, and that these terrorist attacks brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. This historical revisionism is simply inexcusable.
"Hotel Mumbai" premiered at last Fall's Toronto International Film Festival, and is now getting a limited theater release. The movie opened this past weekend on a handful of screens for all of Greater Cincinnati. The Wednesday early screening where I saw this at was attended by exactly 2 people (myself included). Even though this is a good movie (in the technical and quality sense), I honestly cannot see this playing very long in the theater. For that the movie is too hard to stomach and even harder to forget. Maybe this will gain a larger audience when the movie is released on other platforms. Of course I encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater (while you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.