Mumbai Diaries 26/11 | Movie Insert Review | Mohit Raina, Konkona Sensharma | MOVIE INSERT

  

In episode 4 of Mumbai Diaries 26/11,a doctor tells a cop, It’s the horrific night of 26/11.The body in question is that of a wounded and bleeding terrorist who hasspread destruction and death with impunity. The cop is ACP Tawde who hasjust seen his seniors die.   And the doctor is Kaushik Oberoi, the bestsurgeon at Bombay General Hospital. Kaushik is the closest thing the medical fraternity hasto a rock star or ninja as a friend later describes him. Saving lives is all that matters. Even if the life is that of a brainwashed murderer. Human character is also what emerges in those long hours when the city of Mumbai became a battlefield. When confronted with mindless brutality and anguish, men and women find reservoirs of courage and kindness within them. But there are no heroes here. These are ordinary people with ordinary dreams and ordinary flaws. Sexism, casteism, communalism, blind ambition, selfishness, greed, insecurity, deceit – everythingcomes to the fore. But eventually when the cityis under siege, somehow its residents come together andhelp each other through the hell of that night. Mumbai Diaries 26/11 is a masterful blend of fact and fiction. The writers – Yash Chhetija, Nikhil Gonsalves,who has also co-directed the series and Anushka Mehrotra – place characters intotrue events that we're all familiar with. Names are changed – Cama Hospitalbecomes Bombay General Hospital and the Taj Mahal Hotel becomes the Palace Hotel. Over eight episodes, which range induration from 35 minutes to 48 minutes, the series recreates the horror, beat by beat. The word immersive gets tossed around a lotbut Mumbai Diaries 26/11 actually achieves it. Co-directors Nikkhil Advani andNikhil Gonsalves begin by throwing us into the routine chaos of a government hospital wherethe corridors are filled with waiting patients, the toilets are filthy and medicalsupplies aren’t always available. The place is grimy, crowded and frankly,frightening to those of us privileged enough to have never entered one. Imagine what happens here when terrorists let loose and bodies start to pile in. The directors – aided by DOP Kaushal Shah and editor Maahir Zaveri – insert us into the physicality of the present. Long, continuous takes create immediacywith the camera following the several charactersas they go into crisis mode. The action mostly moves betweenthe hospital and the hotel though inexplicably, we also take a quickdetour to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which doesn’t really add any insight. The dialogue by Sanyuktha ChawlaShaikh is authentic and a shout-out to Kavish Sinha for the casting. There are half a dozen prominent characters here and each actor holds his or her own. At centerstage is Mohit Rainaas Dr. Kaushik Oberoi. Mohit, who was solid as the para-commandoin Uri: The Surgical Strike, alternates between being a swashbuckling saviourand a man struggling with personal demons. His heroism is punctured byhis recklessness. It’s a demanding role and he delivers superbly. As does the rest of the cast – among them, veteranssuch as Prakash Belawadi and Konkona Sensharma and newer faces such as Natasha Bharadwaj, SatyajeetDubey, Tina Desai, Mrunmayee Deshpande. Sandesh Kulkarni as ACP Tawde is terrific. The one false note is the character of a television journalist Mansi. Shreya Dhanwanthary, who alsoplayed Sucheta Dalal in Scam 1992, is back in chasing the story mode but Mansi isn’t written as well as the other characters. Even though she has a substantial arc, she comes off as a cliché. The series is also keento make larger statements about religion and the banality of evil – so the Pakistani handler is tenderlyplaying with his daughter while he orders these terrorists tojust kill as many people as they can. There's also a lengthy sequence in which a key character talksabout the fact that hate and violence has no religion. Her family was killed in the 1984 riotsin which the perpetrators were Hindu. It’s well-intentioned and a critical messagebut it seems planted on rather than organic. Mumbai Diaries 26/11 is far more successfulwhen the social critique is layered into the  plot – like a scene in which we're told that the VIP syndrome is in play even in death.   So rescue operations are diverted to the Palace Hotel where rich people are under attack, then the government hospital where life is cheap. It’s grotesque. The two Nikhils with their stellar cast and crewconstruct a riveting portrait of grace under pressure. Watching this series is likebeing inside a pressure cooker. In places, the tension is almost unbearableand the tragedy is just overwhelming. I wept and my insides were just wrung out.But it was absolutely worth it. You can see Mumbai Diaries 26/11on Amazon Prime Video.