'Hotel Mumbai' a flawed but visceral account of mass killings in India

“Hotel Mumbai” - ★ ★ ★

Seriously? Bleeker Street distributes its graphically violent terrorist attack thriller “Hotel Mumbai” less than two weeks after the deadly anti-Muslim mass shooting spree in New Zealand?

Good thing that box office doesn't count in a film review.

With that in mind, “Hotel Mumbai” can best be described as a flawed but combustible combination of a taut suspense thriller and a classic 1970s disaster movie ญญญญญญญ-ญ ญญญญญญญญall it lacks is an all-star cast and the exploitative tagline, “Who will survive?”

Producer and “Slumdog Millionaire” star Dev Patel plays a devoted Sikh husband and loving dad named Arjun, a kitchen worker at the prestigious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, India.

He has no idea that on this day in 2008, young, zealous jihadists - who look like grad students on a camping trip ญ- have just arrived in Mumbai under orders of an Islamic terrorist commander called “Brother Bull” in Pakistan.

They must execute 12 carefully planned attacks on high-profile targets, including “the Taj.”

This will all be, Bull assures them, for the greater glory of Allah.

Director Anthony Maras and co-writer John Collee interviewed survivors and witnesses to the three-day attack to create this sometimes riveting (yet, way too long) account of the mass murder.

Wisely, they don't let Armie Hammer's solitary white American male, David, turn “Hotel Mumbai” into another white savior drama. David has come to the gorgeous Taj with his wife Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi), their newborn and their nanny, Sally (Tilda Cobham-Hervey).

The true heroes of the story turn out to be the brave Taj employees, most of whom opt to stay in the hotel and protect their guests.

Among them, two staffers take the lead: Ajun and the tough master chef, Oberoi (a forceful Anupam Kher), who by all rights, should have been the main character.

After limping through an awkward opening, “Hotel Mumbai” launches into a gut-grabbingly grisly, horrific assault of machine gun bullets and grenades used to slaughter defenseless, screaming people fleeing through the lobby and hallways.

The visceral realism of these attacks is hard to watch sometimes, especially when we see exactly what bullets can do to human bodies at close range.

The impact of the violence becomes even greater when Maras, who astutely understands that constant graphic kill-shots will turn off viewers, alternates between on-screen and off-screen shootings.

Aided by Volker Bertelmann's throbbing, pulsating score (perfect for an all-out horror movie), Maras also constructs scenes of unyielding suspense as patrons we come to know are placed in jeopardy again and again.

Meanwhile, only six members of the Mumbai police show up, not trained or equipped to handle this terrorist action. Special Forces troops are on the way ญญ- but it will take them at least six hours to arrive.

“Hotel Mumbai” can be considered a bookend for 2004's “Hotel Rwanda,” the true story of how hotel operator Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) saved more than a thousand refugees' lives during the 1994 Rwandan genocide campaign.

There, the killers made large machetes their weapon of choice.

That sounds messy, but next to the bullets in “Mumbai,” the violence was a model of restraint.

<b>Starring:</b> Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher

<b>Directed by:</b> Anthony Maras

<b>Other:</b> A Bleeker Street release. Rated R for language, violence. 122 minutes