Hotel Mumbai

On November 26, 2008, a small band of young jihadists from Lashkar-e-Taiba, armed with automatic weapons and grenades, launched a savage attack on Mumbai—India’s largest city. They took aim at 12 separate targets—including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station and the Café Leopold—in a terror wave that culminated at the opulent Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Following explicit telephone directions from “Brother Bull,” based in Pakistan, the Islamic militants were ordered to kill as many “infidels” as possible and take the wealthy ones hostage. In this fictionalized account, the guests include David (Armie Hammer), an American architect, and his aristocratic British/Iranian wife Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi), whose baby is trapped upstairs with their nanny, Sally (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), as well as Vasili (Jason Isaacs), a vulgar Russian misogynist. Guided by gallant Head Chef Hermant Oberoi (Anupam Kher), the loyal, hardworking hotel staff is determined to shelter and save as many guests as possible. As the story evolves, one courageous waiter, Arjun (Dev Patel), rises to heroic status amid the horrific violence. What’s significant about Arjun is that he’s a Sikh. Over the years, the Sikh community has experienced hate crimes, workplace discrimination, and school bullying, along with racial and religious profiling. When empathetic Arjun realizes that his turban, known as a “Pagri,” scares foreigners into thinking he’s one of “them,” he explains its significance and, ultimately, offers to remove it. Inspired by the Emmy-nominated 2009 documentary Surviving Mumbai, much of director Anthony Maras’s Hotel Mumbai features dialogue taken verbatim from transcripts of intercepted mobile phone calls between the callous terrorists and their bloodthirsty handlers, as well as actual TV footage, as it chronicles this suspenseful fight for survival. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Story and Cast” (3 min.), “Real-Life Heroes” (3 min.), “Finding the True Story” (2 min.), and “Humanity Within Tragedy” (2 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a solid true drama.] (S. Granger)