The story of the Mumbai attacks will now be presented in a film. PHOTO: FILMYFRIDAY.COM
MUMBAI: A dramatized Bollywood account of the Mumbai attacks of 2008, when 166 people died in a three-day rampage, opened in Indian cinemas on Friday to present an unusually emotive tale told from the perspective of a police officer.
"The Attacks of 26/11" chronicles the events that began on November 26 2008, when 10 gunmen went on a killing spree throughout the coastal city, attacking two luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish centre, among other places.
It is the latest in a recent spate of Bollywood movies taking inspiration from real-life incidents, a practice that used to be unusual. Just over the last few years, there have been films on the gruesome murder of a model and a daring bank heist.
The film's director, Ram Gopal Varma, said he decided to make the film to try and answer questions about how a small handful of attackers was able to lay siege to a vast metropolis the size of Mumbai.
"How can 10 men hold a city of 1.5 crore (15 million) people to siege? That is something everyone should know," Varma told Reuters.
The film focuses on the city police and their response to the attacks, for which India blames the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, with veteran actor Nana Patekar playing a high ranking Mumbai police officer referred to only as "joint police commissioner."
Patekar's character, based on a real policeman, narrates the film, which portrays in graphic detail how the hapless police force, caught completely unawares, struggles to cope with an attack of such enormity.
At one point he frantically tells a government official, "I don't know what to do."
"You need to understand that the police were confused and didn't know what to do," Varma said. "If you were in their shoes, you would react the same way to an incident of this magnitude. It is important to understand their point of view."
Advertising posters show a group of 10 men, the attackers, in a dinghy heading towards the iconic sea-facing Taj Mahal hotel, one of the most recognized buildings in Mumbai - a nod to the powerful shock and emotions the attack still evokes, symbolized by the hotel.
Varma himself has fallen afoul of these still unhealed emotional scars, setting off controversy several times.
The first came just days after the attack, when he was seen at the Taj Mahal hotel with a major politician and accused of insensitivity for visiting the site so soon after the disaster and of gathering material for a film, which he denied.
Last November, a political ally of the government said shooting at the actual locations of the attack "mocked" Mumbai residents.
"Seeing broken glass or grenade dust isn't going to help me make a film," said Varma, who has directed around 40 movies in the past 25 years.
"But after two and a half years, once the investigations were completed and the charge sheet was filed ... that is when I had the time to study it and that is when the idea of making a film came into my mind," he said.
So far, the movie has garnered mixed reviews. While a critic for news channel NDTV said some moments in the film were "gripping enough to touch some raw nerves," a review for mainstream newspaper DNA wasn't as kind.
"'The Attacks of 26/11' ends up being a confused piece of work that has neither the well researched methodology of a documentary nor the dramatics of a feature film," critic Tushar Joshi wrote.
COMMENTS (4)
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@Vectra: If you have been relying on Indian media to tell you what Pakistan has been doing to punish culprits then you'll spin endlessly in its brainwashing machine. Ajmal Kasab, the culprit, has been hanged and there has not been any significant evidence linking your favorite Hafiz Saeed to the bombings. Even after being acquitted by the courts, he was again picked on the order of interior minister and tried in closed door sessions with the CJ and higher ups but nothing could be found against him. Merely chanting "terrorist, terrorist", doesn't mean it's an evidence against him, otherwise same could be done against your to-be presidential candidate Modi.
P.S. this is coming from someone who doesn't support Hafiz Saeed; but who has taken some time to research into the issue and watch exclusive, factual interviews with him. Also, masala movies like this won't do jack to put a nation under pressure; everyone knows the spellings of propaganda.
Brace yourself folks - most of the comments we will be reading here will be like the one above - from people who have not seen the film.
The retelling of this horrific episode will make some very uncomfortable - as it should.
Recreating events that took place only 5 years ago and that was well televised live and analyzed and re-analyzed and very well documented in a movie is the laziest thing a director can do.
It's an utter waste of money and resources (not talent, because there's none).
Such a film has absolutely no purpose but one : To cash in on the fear/emotional/sensitive aspect. That's it.
Only Ram Gopal verma can make such a cheap attempt.
In no mature countries do the filmmakers re-create events that are well known to the people.
Zero dark thirty did not recreate Osama's hunt in Abbottabad, it recreated 10 years of CIA search for OBL which is not known to us.
A mighty heart did not re-created the killing of Daniel Pearl. It re-created the search and the events that led to his kidnapping, a story which we were not aware of.
Argo told us the unknown story of how the victims were rescued (although boringly and with thousands of lies).
United 93 told us the unknown story of how a few brave people inside a plane prevented an attack on a US landmark.
All these stories were not well documented in the media.
We 1.2 billion Indians do not understand the meaning or the language of cinema and smart filmmakers cash in on our ignorance by feeding us utter nonsense. Anyone can google mumbai attacks and write a screenplay that is 10 times better than this piece of crap.