Solid and unemotional retelling of a true life horror story. Well judged and well made.

Rating: 7/10 (29 September 2019)

This Sky Original movie simultaneously released in theatres and on Sky and we watched it on its opening night, free from either having read reviews or expectations.
To be honest, the real life incident that spawned the movie had actually faded in my memory so common, now, are such mass-murder terrorist events.
That didn't really matter though, because whether or not one is familiar with this event, there are plenty others that it might have been.
It's an ensemble cast production with stand-out, but un-showy, performances from Armie Hammer, Dev Patel and the head chef, played beautifully by Rohan Mirchandaney - all are trapped in the high class Taj Hotel in Mumbai as it is laid siege to by a group of Islamic terrorists acting under instruction from an off-screen telephone dictator known only as "The Bull".
Whilst the terrorists enjoy a fair amount of screen time, it's their prey that the movie, rightly, focusses on rather than glorify the terrorists' actions.
It's utterly chilling, pretty much from start to finish. The head count of close-range and strafing machine-gun deaths is colossal, brutal and completely emotionless. Indeed the film strangely fails to emotionally engage; rather it leaves you horror-struck at the ability of a less than elite bunch of assassins to wreak havoc, with little or no police/military intervention for many hours, making their killings become almost sporting-hunt-like.
The story is peppered with crescendos of killing and then quieter periods where the prey take stock of their situation and gradually formulate plans for their escape.
It's cat and mouse throughout and gripping in its intensity.
I very much doubt this will trouble major awards juries, but as a piece of thought-provoking 'entertainment' it does its job without resorting to cliche, heavy emotional bribery or OTT special effects.
A good job, well done.