Aussie film 'Hotel Mumbai' is fictional recreation of 2008 Mumbai attacks

Three years after French director Nicolas Saada's "Taj Mahal", which focused on a single site of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Australian filmmaker Anthony Maras' debut narrative feature, "Hotel Mumbai", enters the precincts of the iconic property and presents a fictional recreation of the violence perpetrated on India's financial capital by heavily armed terrorists a decade ago and the remarkable resilience displayed by the staff and guests that were caught unawares.

"The film is about one of the most terrible incidents imaginable, but it is also about people from different groups cutting across ethnicity, race and class coming together to fight off the attackers," Maras said at a press conference after the world premiere of "Hotel Mumbai" at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival.

In a reaction that is typical of Indian journos covering the festival, the film was critiqued by some ever-touchy quarters for not mentioning Pakistan by name as the perpetrator of the heinous act of terrorism, as if the role of elements in the neighbouring nation is in any need of reiteration. In any case, it would not have changed the story or its emphasis in any way.

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