Patel is subdued yet excellent in Anthony Maras’s white-knuckle retelling of the 2008 Mumbai terrorism attacks At the five-star Taj Mahal Palace hotel “guest is God”. So says head chef Oberoi (Anupam Kher) to his staff before they commence serving the dinner during which the hotel will arrive under siege from four gunmen intent on a massacre. Based on the series of terrorist attacks that occurred in Mumbai in 2008,Hotel Mumbai recounts how the Taj’s guests and staff fought to survive those four days.
It’s an ensemble piece as director Anthony Maras weaves various perspectives into a tightly constructed narrative. Dev Patel (delivering a subdued yet excellent performance) plays a server under the watchful eye of Chef Oberoi who is suddenly tasked with keeping his guests alive when the attacks crash out. Armie Hammer is the Jack-and-Coke drinking all-American husband of Nazanin Boniadi – the couple decide to leave their baby upstairs with the nanny while they dine in the hotel’s restaurant. Jason Isaacs’s sleazy Russian businessman dines nearby. Other narratives include the Mumbai police officers who infiltrate the hotel to get to the CCTV cameras, Patel’s character’s wife watching the news footage, or a young Aussie couple backpacking across India.
For all its subplots,Maras keeps a tight leash on the film’s narrative strands as we watch characters paddle in and out of each other’s stories. The expend of real news footage on background televisions is a clever way of dealing with exposition, allowing the plot to paddle briskly along.
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Source: theguardian.com