Most of us remember where we were when we heard about 9/11. Indians, and those who are connected to India, however also remember where they were when they heard about 26/11. Bombay might have been the only target that day but the rest of India felt it too. It was a shock to the system for everyone.
I was sitting in my college cafeteria in Fargo, North Dakota eating breakfast, scrambled eggs and tater tots, reading that day’s USA Today when I came across the article about the attack. I remember losing my appetite shortly afterwards. The details were gruesome. I especially was heartbroken when I read about the Chabad (Jewish sanctuary) attack which saw the Chabad’s rebbe, his wife and the other congregants slaughtered. I remember thinking to myself “was this done for me? Was this done in my name because I’m Palestinian?” But I digress.
Ever the national tragedy vulture, Bollywood seems hellbent on milking every terrible calamity that strikes India for profit and spectacle’s sake. 26/11 is no exception. They threw everything on the wall hoping something sticks. From documentaries to Ram Gopal Varma’s half-arsed, deeply offensive The Attacks of 26/11 to that 2018 Hollywood shlock the now cancelled Armie Hammer was in.
Fortunately for us, Amazon Prime’s Mumbai Diaries 26/11 sticks.
This is shocking considering Nikhil Advani helmed this project. I’m not downgrading chick flick fluff (Nora Ephron would rise from her grave and, rightfully, smack me in the head if I did), but Kal Ho Naa Ho and the especially godawful Katti Batti, that ended an actor’s career, weren’t just terrible rom-comes, they were crimes against cinema.
“The show is a sweetly macabre Valentine to Bombay and the heroes it births.”
The once ridiculed filmmaker redeems himself entirely here. The direction of this show is astute and efficacious. There are even auteur-like flourishes spread throughout its eight episodes. It’s evident that Advani was inspired by a litany of very different filmmakers for this show, but its cinematic language is ultimately, singular. Make no mistake, this is Advani’s best work till date.
The show grips you with its talons and refuses to let you breathe as the nihilistic Pakistani terrorists move serpentine across Bombay leaving behind them a trail of blood and unrelenting horror. The psychological weight feels unbearable but you find yourself somehow submitting to it completely.
Each character here is sketched out so well that we see them in all their humanity flaws and all. At the start of the show, no one appears to be likable but we slowly develop an affection for every single one of them because, as the adage goes “actions speak louder than words, and what the heroes of Bombay 26/11 did, which these characters are based on, was nothing short of deific. The ensemble cast is superb but special props must be given to Satyajeet Dubey for portraying – and understanding – Indian Muslim Anxiety so well.
The show is a sweetly macabre Valentine to Bombay and the heroes it births. When the hotheaded but heroic Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mahesh Tawde, charges against the Pakistani terrorists and yells out the battle cry “YEH MERE CHEHER!” (“THIS IS MY CITY!”), you feel it in your bones.
If an issue were to be had with this beautiful show, it’s that it, like all the 26/11 films, shows and documentaries before it, doesn’t touch on the terrors that befell Chabad Bombay a.k.a Nariman House. However, because there are so many convoluted dimensions to that part of this tragic tale that go beyond the parameters of the India/Pakistan conflict, a separate film would probably be more appropriate.
