Hotel Mumbai Parent Guide

When Arjun (Dev Patel), a young father, comes in to work late and without his shoes at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, he begs his boss to let him finish the shift - his pregnant wife could give birth any day, and he needs the money. Unfortunately for him and the other staff and guests, four young Pakistani radicals have infiltrated the hotel as part of a coordinated attack on the Indian city of Mumbai, and open fire on anyone unfortunate enough to be in the hotel. Worse still, the local police don’t have a tactical unit, and the nearest one is hours away in Delhi. For Arjun and the other besieged staff, the decision to stay and protect their guests puts their lives immediately at risk, and the terrorists can move quickly without any police interference.

Let’s get something out of the way before we get going: Hotel Mumbai is not a movie for the sensitive, anxious, or squeamish. With brutal, unrelenting violence, the entire movie is riddled with tension and anxiety as characters try to hide or escape from the gunmen. The fatal consequences for failing to do so are never far off and are shown frequently and in detail. I lost count of how many people are murdered on screen, but it’s a lot. Imagine if the Omaha Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan were two hours long - that should give you some idea of the level of brutality in this film.

One of my primary concerns with this film is, believe it or not, the title. From what I can find, the Hotel has never been referred to as “Hotel Mumbai”, nor is it in the film, and it seems that the title was chosen deliberately to elicit a comparison with Hotel Rwanda. These movies do share some elements – politically motivated violence, for example - but it strikes me as crass to try to brand movies this way. There’s no upside in comparing terrorist attacks to state sponsored genocide and doing so only seems to disrespect the victims of both events.

That aside, the movie is competently made, although there are too many characters to really delve into any of them. This is balanced by the fact that their motivations are believable enough that they’re still compelling and relatable. The camera work is simple, but it does a good job of focusing the tension so that the characters’ actions feel motivated and clear. The sound design is also a huge asset in this area, frequently shifting from deafening to ominously silent.

While this certainly isn’t a family movie, or a good pick for date night, Hotel Mumbai does a good job of bringing a tragedy to life. By focusing on the unarmed protagonist’s emotions, rather than making an action movie about a police takedown, the filmmakers have managed to make two hours of carnage feel far more real than they otherwise would.