Evil is a mystifying word.
Most of us routinely encounter 
corruption, lies, betrayal, deceit.
What then properly qualifies as evil?
The events of 26/11 
gave an answer to that.
No matter where you were that night,
 near the multiple attack sites
or lucky enough to be far away.
if you were in Mumbai, 
you experienced the heart of darkness.
The attacks, which lasted over three days
from November 26th to 29th
and were orchestrated by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, 
killed more than 160 people.
I remember the horror of watching 
the bloodbath unfold on television,
the siege mentality 
that engulfed the city
and the wild rumors
that fanned our paranoia.
Even when the attacks were over, 
I was terrified to send my children to school
because an anonymous SMS forward insisted 
that schools were the next target.
We were all scarred, 
in ways big and small.
In Hotel Mumbai, writer-director Anthony Maras
and co-writer John Collee revisit
the first night of the 
three days the terror lasted.
The focus is the attack on Mumbai’s crown
jewel – the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
Why focus on the Taj?
I’m assuming because the opulence of a 
landmark hotel makes for cinematic visuals
and it allows the narrative 
to be led by Western characters,
meaning you can 
cast Armie Hammer.
A disclaimer tells us that 
the film is inspired by true events
but the makers have taken dramatic liberties 
so we can’t hold Hotel Mumbai up for accuracy.
Once again, we are in that tricky terrain 
of the fact-fiction hybrid.
Anupam Kher plays Hemant Oberoi, the Taj’s
iconic chef who helped save many lives
by hiding guests in 
the Chambers club.
Dev Patel plays Arjun, the waiter 
who exemplifies
the Taj motto that the guest is God.
We also follow the story of David and Zahra,
a married couple with a baby.
He is American.
She is Arabic.
We are repeatedly told that 
Zahra’s mother is fantastically rich
and the two must get VIP treatment.
This includes the butler making sure that
the bath water is exactly at 48 degrees.
The hotel is an island of luxury.
Maras alternates between the carnage 
that is unfolding on the street as the attacks
begin on VT Station 
and Leopold Café
and the precisely manufactured 
elegance at the Taj.
We cut from blood and bullets 
to perfectly done pastries.
But of course, soon enough, 
the killers are in the lobby.
There are obviously 
no surprises here.
The events have been extensively 
documented in news media.
There are several 
documentaries on the attack
including Dan Reed’s 
Emmy-nominated Terror in Mumbai.
Fiction gives Maras the 
advantage of building drama
and situating us inside the 
hotel on that fateful night.
Like Paul Greengrass 
did with the stellar United 93,
about one of the airplanes 
that was hijacked on 9/11.
But Hotel Mumbai doesn’t deliver 
that level of tension or immersion.
It works in fits and starts.
The scripting is uneven.
The Indian characters, especially Oberoi
and Arjun , have emotional heft and benefit
from heartfelt performances 
by Anupam and Dev Patel.
But the non-Indians are 
bland and largely forgettable,
Hammer is wasted 
in the role of David.
Jason Isaacs playing the unlikable 
Russian businessman Vasili
is also too generic 
to make an impression.
Maras and Collee try to give us insight 
into the minds of the terrorists
but the actors are one-note, 
which may be by design
because the characters have 
been brainwashed into
killing machines but 
it doesn’t make for compelling cinema.
Maras is more successful at 
staging the horrors of that night
it’s chilling to see the killers knock on doors 
pretending to be room service
or laundry and then unleashing bullets, 
when the guest opens.
But there are sequences that 
feel just too designed only for suspense
so of course at some point, 
the baby is being hidden in a closet
and we have to hold our breaths, 
hoping that it won’t cry.
And yet, Hotel Mumbai 
lands enough emotional punches.
The scale and extent of the 
tragedy is too vast to leave you unmoved.
I just wish that the film didn’t insist
on a patriotic slant at the end
or tell us that Mumbai 
bounced back in two days
it feels like an empty assertion.
There was enough heroism 
and humanity on display
during the attacks to 
give us hope for a better tomorrow.
