Hotel Mumbai

        Based on the true story of the 12 terrorist attacks in Mumbai India on November 26th, 2008, this harrowing drama centers on the attack at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. Directed with incredible realism by Anthony Maras, the audience is thrust directly into the bedlam of what amounts to a massacre at the hotel. 

         The handful of terrorists make their way into the hotel in a mob of scared people seeking safety from the other attacks around the city. Once inside, they methodically go through the hotel killing everyone they see without a second thought. It is brutally realistic and almost unwatchable.

          Head chef, Hemant Oberoi, played by Anupam Kher, staff member Arjun, played by Dev Patel along with other hotel staff try their best to hide many of the hotel's guests, including real characters played by Jason Isaacs, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi and Tilda Cobham-Hervey. 

                The fear is palatable and the suspense is non-stop as everyone is a target. The violence is chilling but the story is real and the survivors and the people that helped them need to be acknowledged. In the middle of this madness, heroes do emerge, not in a Hollywood way but rather as real human beings trapped in a life and death nightmare.

                 Just as the events of 9/11 in the United States reverberated throughout the world, this coordinated attack in Mumbai is considered by many to be the Indian equivalent. Of course, while the death toll could not compare, it was still a tragedy of grand proportions carried out by just 10 men that brought a city and a country to its knees.

                  While it is almost unbearable to watch, it's an important story to tell and it pays tribute to  both the fallen and those who survived.