Hotel Mumbai (2018)
Based on a true story I hadn’t remembered.
The other night, I was scrolling through Hulu looking for a movie to fall asleep to and Hotel Mumbai caught my eye. When I read the plot, I knew I wasn’t going to sleep any time soon — I had to first watch a hotel-full of people fend off a terrorist attack.
I thought it would follow your typical “regular joe” fights terrorists plotline, but thankfully it didn’t. Typically, the main character in these movies is a jaded and wounded ex-military officer, just minding his own business when he is thrown into a terrorist plot and forced to save the day. As I was watching, I was ready for Armie Hammer or Dev Patel’s characters to be ex-special forces or something like that, but that wasn’t the case.
Hotel Mumbai is a story of ordinary people coming together to help another, though they had no obligation to do so. This film, based on a true story, was full of regular people who chose to be heroic when lives were threatened and that’s what makes this film special.
This story reminds the audience that there is goodness in the world, which sounds ridiculous when talking about a film about a terrorist attack. Though much of our news and the media we consume tells us about the depravity of humanity, Hotel Mumbai shows what can happen when ordinary people decide to do something extraordinary.
What I loved about this film is that you could stick yourself in the middle of it and imagine what you would do. There were no superheroes or military guys to save the day, even the police force was completely ill-equipped to deal with this massacre. Yet, so many people stepped up and performed individual acts of bravery. The misogynistic man was willing to lay his life down to save a woman. A nanny was able to hide a screaming baby away for long enough for them to get rescued. Staff and guests of the Taj Hotel risked their lives for complete strangers. People from different backgrounds and countries were able to come together to help one another.
This wasn’t a happy or joyful movie by any means. It showed some truly horrific acts and I was tense the entire time. But I’m so glad that I watched it and that a decade after the real-life attacks, they were able to come out with a film that celebrates the lives of those who risked it all. The filmmakers were able to remind us that goodness does exist and that humans are resilient, even through the most tragic of circumstances. It’s definitely worth taking the time to watch.
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