Before I watched this film on Netflix, I tried to research about the movie a bit and find out the context of this movie. On 26/11 Mumbai Attacks, many Directors made many films and documentaries. But this one was different.
French director Nicolas Saada, never actually wanted to make any film on this attack in the first place because he thought it might look like he's trying to exploit the situation and trying to gain something out of it. Not until he met a girl, in real life who was there at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai on that dreadful night, when he thought that he wants to tell the girl's story. Taj Mahal wass not meant to be a "thriller" in the first place. It is basically about the inner journey of Louis and the interactions with the world around her, which includes her parents and everyone.
So when I started watching the movie, my expectations were not to see what happened that day in terms of violence or incidents. My expectation was to see, what did that girl went through and what was it for her and her family.
From that context, I was not only impressed but also mesmerized. I loved the way Stacy Martin portrayed the character of Louis, in the movie. She was brilliant in one word.
As far as the honesty is concerned, I have to give Saada, 10/10.
Never did he lost his way and turned this brilliant creation as a "docudrama" with a lot of things going on, confused shots, erratic flows etc. He was very clear on what he wanted to show and how he wanted to show. He could have gotten easily diverted by showing the attacks, firings and bloodbath on the screen but he chose not to do that. He was always with the girl and just by the sound of the bullets and grenades he made everything so apparent.
Piyush Shah, the cinematographer of the film, also deserves a big round of applause for his tremendous work. The scenes from Mumbai, shots inside the room, all were so beautiful.
My sincere thanks goes to the producers of the film also, who also chose to believe in the story and backup the film. I can see that recovering money and making profit in terms of money, from this kind of film, is not an easy task but they still chose to backup.
All in all, I loved the movie, and would love to see more of SAADA in future.
