The Attacks of 26/11

On December 30, 2008, Ram Gopal Varma toured the ravaged Taj Mahal Palace Hotel just days after the attacks, drawing widespread condemnation.[18] At the time, Varma called his visit a 'coincidence' and said he had no plans of making a film based on the attacks, but later apologised for his visit prior to the release of the film.[19]

The film starts with Rakesh Maria (Nana Patekar) , Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police, Confessing in front of Enquiry Committee - " As Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police, I state every word of my testimony, it's details and with regards to all the evidence about the attacks of 26/11, I will only speak the truth ". Then Rakesh Maria starts narrating the incident.

Few days before the attacks , a fishing trawler namely - MV Kuber , is Roaming over the Arabian sea. When it is stopped by an anonymous boat asking for help in the middle of the sea. The captain and other members of the anonymous boat takes people of the MV Kuber as hostages and asks the captain of MV Kuber, Amar Singh Solanki to take ten young men from their boat and drop them at Mumbai, otherwise they will kill his people. Amar Unwilling took those 10 people to Mumbai, Who turned out to be Terrorist. When the shore of Mumbai was visible then those terrorists ask Amar to stop the few kilometres away from the shore . Then those terrorists contact the Captain of that anonymous boat , who asks them to kill Amar. They Kill Amar and move on to a emergency raft available on MV Kuber and they move towards the shore after abandoning MV Kuber.

On 26 November, They arrive at Colaba causeway and they make a team of 5, two terrorist in each group. Group 1 takes a taxi to Victoria terminus, Group 2 moves towards Nariman House, Group 3 takes a taxi to Hotel Oberoi Trident, Group 4 walks and goes to Cafe Leopord anad Group 5 takes a taxi to Hotel Taj Palace.

Group 1, travelling towards Victoria terminus in a taxi, which has two terrorist namely - Ajmal Kasab(Sanjeev Jaiswal) and Ismail Khan (Saad Orhan). Ismail plans to implant a bomb in taxi and Diverts the taxi driver by talking to him, whereas Kasab implants a bomb in the taxi.

Meanwhile Group 4 reaches to Leopold Cafe and start firing indiscriminately with AK-47 rifles on everyone inside. After attacking Leopold Cafe, Group 4 moves on towards Hotel Taj Palace to meet Group 5. Then, both the groups attacked at Hotel Taj Palace and mowed down everyone in the lobby, including a three-year-old child.

Rakesh Maria gets emotional and says "They shot in that child's head". Then he looks at the cup in saucer full of tea beside him. He says before drinking the cup of tea "In today's world 5 star hotel is proof of human prosperity but when we saw blood and corpse of that child, I can't believe that humans are still barbaric".

Rakesh Maria continues Narrating. At the same time Hotel palace was attacked, the group 1 arrives at Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (which was initially known as Victoria terminus). They move inside the washroom and prepare themselves to attack. Ismail Khan hands Ajmal Kasab a grenade and explaining him the plan says - " Listen to me carefully, First you are supposed to throw this Grenade into the crowd, and Do not show mercy to any woman or child.

Ajmal Kasab Moves towards the waiting area and throws the grenade at the crowd and after that Grenade Blasts, Ajmal Kasab and Ismail Khan open fire on the crowd with their AK 47 rifles gun, killing almost everyone in the Waiting area. Meanwhile ,Officer Shashank Shinde Armed with a pistol arrives with his 3 subordinates And moves near The waiting area, where Ajmal Kasab was standing, searching for his prey. Shashank Shinde tries shoot him with his pistol But, was Mowed down by Ismail. Later, Shashank's Two subordinates armed with old fashioned rifle try open fire on both the Terrorist but, are killed by Ajmal Kasab. The Only subordinate alive was searching those terrorists on the other side of terminus. Both The terrorist leave the terminus. When the subordinate arrives near the waiting area, find his comrades dead. He sobs in front of their corpse.

• Nana Patekar as Rakesh Maria[20][4]
• Saad Orhan as Ismail Khan
• Sanjeev Jaiswal as Ajmal Kasab
• Atul Gavandi as Abu Umer
• Ashish Bhatt as Shoaib
• Sukesh Mishra as Fahadullah
• Vishal Khosla as Abdul Rehman
• Mak Mukesh Tripathi as Babar Imran
• Shahab Khan as Inspector at Cama Hospital
• Atul Kulkarni as Inspector Shinde
• Jitendra Joshi as constable
• Ganesh Yadav as Amar Singh Solanki, captain of fishing trawler MV Kuber
• Farzad Jehani as himself, owner of Leopold Cafe
• Jasbir Thandi as Hemant Karkare

Under the art direction of Uday Singh a replica of Taj Hotel was created with a cost of ₹40 million.[21] Varma auditioned 500 applicants and selected Sanjeev Jaiswal to play Ajmal Kasab, the prime accused terrorist in the 26/11 attack on Mumbai.[22] Varma had also asked policemen to watch 15-minute trailer of The Attacks of 26/11.[7] The film is restricted to the night of the incident and has focused on the happenings between 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. when Kasab was caught.[23] The shooting of the film completed on 10 December 2012 with last shot of the massacre at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station.[24][25] The owner of Leopold Cafe plays himself in the film.[26] The actors in the film have met the victims and research on the subject including the eyewitnesses, police statements, judgment, charge sheets and author Romil Saxena.[27][28]

The film was shot on real locations.[29]

The film's first 7 minutes were released on 23 November 2012, online on YouTube through the channel of Eros International.[30] A special screening of the film was arranged by the director for Karan Johar and Rakesh Maria.[31] The first trailer of Satya 2 was attached with the film.[32]

Subhash K. Jha of the Deccan Herald gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, calling the movie "a work of riveting resonance" and "one of the best films in recent times on the wages of terrorism".[33] Resham Sengar of Zee News called the film "a moving sketch of the dreadful terror attack", and gave the film 4 stars out of 5.[34] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 3.5 out of 5 and said that the film was "A powerful retelling of a regrettable event in history".[35][36]

Vaihayasi Pande Daniel of Rediff.com gave it two and half stars, saying "I have a headache. My ears are still ringing. The nausea is just about abating."[36] Madhureeta Mukherjee of The Times of India said "While the thought is poignant, the horror isn't palpable throughout and the execution doesn't cut as deep as the actual tragedy." and gave it two and half stars.[36] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave 2.5 stars calling the movie "watchable" and saying "Ram Gopal Varma is still not back to his best and The Attacks of 26/11 isn't an unqualified triumph."[37]

In his review for CNN-IBN, Rajeev Masand gave the film 1.5 stars, writing that the film "often resembles a tacky B-movie" and was a "tragedy exploited".[38][39] In Anupama Chopra's review for the Hindustan Times, the film received 2.5 stars, with the author remarking that the movie's "powerful subject [is] watered down by ineffective story-telling".[40]

Nana Patekar's acting as Rakesh Maria was appreciated. Firstpost wrote in their review— "Nana holds the film together. He feels every line that he utters. His heart bleeds for each one of the 166 people who died on that night. When he tells Kasab in a choked voice, "I have a son of your age", Nana isn't faking it. His performance goes way beyond acting."[41]

The first song from The Attacks of 26/11 was released at the Leopold Cafe on 11 February 2013 at exactly the time when the terror attacks began on the cafe and Mumbai city. There are total 4 songs in the album. Ram Gopal Varma sung the song "Nethutti Ruchi Mariginda" in the Telugu version of this film.[42]

• Hotel Mumbai

• The Attacks of 26/11 at IMDb