TV Review: HBO’s ‘Terror In Mumbai’ (Six Stars out of Five)

There’s the cliched phrase: “It’s like watching a train wreck.” In “Terror in Mumbai,” which airs tonight 8 pm ET/PT on HBO, you get to see what no documentary has shown before: a “360 degree view” of a multi-pronged terrorist act, seen partly and genuinely from the terrorists point view. The reason: “Terror in Mumbai” uses actual cell phone instructional conversations during the attack given to the terrorists in the field by a shadowy control “boss” in Pakistan. Not recreated -- the real thing…and it will make your blood both boil, and freeze.

So, yes, even terrorists have “directors” who guide and supervise their every move as they do their dirtywork. It shows how the terrorists got info on where Indian security forces were heading and specific directions on which hostages to kill and when — even when to throw hand grenades and set hotel fires.

One of the most chilling moments: where the control agent in Pakistan talks to a hostage at the Jewish center in Mumbai and reassures her she could be home “by Sabbath.” You hear the fear in her voice. Later on he orders the terrorist to murder her and another hostage. You hear the shots (the boss in Pakistan wanted to stay on the phone to personally hear the murders himself).

Another feature: extensive and stunning footage of the Indian police interrogation of the lone surviving gunman in his hospital bed, answering all of their questions, weeping because he realized he had been duped (it’s later reported in the documentary that his trainers/handlers told him that when he died his body would smell like flowers as he went to heaven…so Indian officials took him to the morgue to show him the dead bullet ridden bloated bodies of the other 9 gunmen which was a huge shock to him).

Produced and directed by Dan Reed, “Terror in Mumbai” uses parts of 284 intercepted cell phone calls, news footage, still photos, extensive video surveillance photos of the terrorists in action, interviews with police officials — plus interviews with guests from the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels who detail the mass executions there — to give a moment-by-moment reconstruct the horrific November 26, 2008 events where 10 not-so-heavily-armed gunmen paralyzed a city and stunned the world as images were beamed worldwide on the tube. “Terror in Mumbai documents how, as the murders were reported and images of fires emerged, the control agent in Pakistan was almost giddy at the carnage-created publicity unfolded on his TV screen.

After hijacking a ship and slitting the captain’s throat (Terrorist: “We finished him off. We slit his throat.”), the terrorists spread out in the city to attack Mombai’s main railway station, a popular cafe, two major hotels and a Jewish center. HBO and Reed also picked a class act to narrate the piece, Mumbai-born Fareed Zakaria, who is as superb a narrator as he is Editor of a Newsweek’s International Editor and as a CNN host. During the documentary, Zakaria says the following:

“Much as the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. did in 2001, the events that unfolded last November in Mumbai served as a terrifying wake-up call, not just to India but to the rest of the world…It broadened the spectrum of our enemies and brought attention to the number of different terrorist groups that exist, who may be bigger and better organized than we ever imagined. The fact that a small group of gunmen was able to inflict so much pain, and the government of the second most populous nation on earth was unable to stop them for three days, should change our sense of the dangers out there.”

In fact at one point, the control agent tells one of the doomed terrorists:“This was just the trailer. Just wait till you see the rest of the film.”

Some highlights that linger:

More than any documentary, “Terror in Mumbai” hammers home the horror, grief and brutality of terrorism. But more than that: taken altogether it illustrates perfectly what “terrorism” means not to just those on the receiving end of it as victims or responders, but to the terrorists themselves.

Some reviews have raised eyebrows about “humanizing” the terrorists. But this piece is one of the best illustrations of the problem: terrorist recruiters use perverted definitions of faith to rope in young people who aren’t sophisticated and not exactly rocket scientists to begin with (which is good because they’d probably use the rockets they manufactured if they were). When they’re kicking down a hotel door to find guests to mercilessly butcher, it’s their mission to increase the body count. And, they are told and themselves parrot, they are destined for a great place in heaven for snuffing out the lives of anyone, regardless of gender or age.

And the control agent makes it crystal clear: the mission is not over until he terrorist is killed.

But here is the scariest part:

The Mumbai attacks, documented so comprehensively in this documentary indeed should serve as a wake up call.

This kind of multi-pronged attack could be replicated in almost any city including in the Untied States. Zakaria notes: “By attacking multiple targets the terrorists had hoped to plunge the police into chaos. They succeeded completely.”

Are U.S. cities prepared?

On a TMV scale of one to five, “Terror in Mumbai” gets a six stars.