The narrator of Hotel Mumbai says at the start of the film that the hotel had been a home to statesmen and celebrities for over a century, and that guests were highly respected. Nobody would ever imagine the tragedy that was to occur in late November 2008.

While the high life goes on inside the hotel as usual, guests welcomed with a marigold garland, escorted into well-appointed rooms and so on,  a group of militant Lashkar-e-Taiba floats on a boat that looks too small for all of them, closing in on Mumbai from the sea.

The arrival of the boat marked the beginning of the true disastrous events on what Hotel Mumbai is based.

Australian director Anthony Maras builds the action-packed scenes from the cold-blooded shooting in the crowded public spaces of populous Mumbai, that eventually enters the Taj. The attackers, wearing earphones, were directed remotely from Pakistan by a leader who was only referred to as the Bull.

“God is with you. Paradise awaits you,” is what the Bull kept telling the militants.

The hotel began the most unimaginable days it has ever had. A thousand guests and more than 500 staff members were trapped inside, and they had to find ways out of the attackers’ reach.

Local police were not the ones to count on, as they were not trained to deal with an attack of that magnitude.

Those who were trapped, as well as local police, had to wait for help from New Delhi.

Among the hotel guests portrayed in the movie are David (Armie Hammer) with his wife Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi), their son Cameron and nanny Sally (Tilda Cobham-Hervey). There is also Vasili (Jason Isaacs), a Russian man who has had military training.

In their attempts to survive, guests are assisted by the dedicated staff of the hotel. A waiter named Arjun, played by Dev Patel, was one of the heroic hotel staff members, as well as the hotel’s executive chef, Hemant Oberoi (Anupam Kher), whose leadership was challenged to expand out of the kitchen.

Read also: 'Hotel Mumbai' recounts horrors, courage in 2008 attack

The dramatic portrayal of the hotel siege also intertwines with television footage of the attacks, a constant reminder that the event was true and that misfortune could happen at the most unpredictable of places.

Leaving hundreds of people dead and wounded, the story could not be called to have a happy ending. However, along with the misfortune, we are reminded that humanity crosses differences in social background, race, ethnicity, beliefs and that it eventually wins. (sop/mut)

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