To most, it’s just another movie poster, but to Richard Farah, the Hotel Mumbai signage at MovieTowne, Port-of-Spain is a reminder of life’s uncertainties and how lucky he is to be alive.
In 2008, the businessman was a guest at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel when terrorists attacked.
For more than 60 hours the Taj was under siege; militant men bearing automatic weapons reigned terror on hotel guests, killing foreigners and locals alike until the Indian army regained control and killed the attackers.
The three days of terror were documented in the international media and in the bloody aftermath the body count was 167.
Now 11 years later, the events of that November night have been brought to life in a major motion picture, Hotel Mumbai. The movie has been described as a story of terrorism, humanity and heroism.
After viewing the two-hour film, Farah says it brought to life “what I have lived through.”
Recounting how a last-minute decision saved his life, he said: “When I returned to the hotel from dinner, I looked over at the bar and thought, not tonight.”
Unbeknown to Farah, a decision to avoid a nightcap proved to be the difference between life and death. He headed up to his room but as the elevator doors closed, gunfire erupted.
“That is when the attack occurred when I was in the elevator. I started hearing gunshots, but I thought maybe it was fireworks.”
Farah ran to his room on the 17th floor and called the lobby to find out what was happening.
“They said do not come out of your room, there is gunfire in the streets. I tried to call back and the phone was dead, I did not realise everyone had been killed,” he said.
At 8.30 pm, he sat and listened to gunfire and explosions. The frequency increased every hour. He was afraid to move and his Blackberry was the only communication with the outside world.
He recalled: “I got the news on my Blackberry. The reporter said there was an attack on the Taj.”
As the news sank in, Farah wrote a will and called his family in Trinidad.
“I told them this is my last communication, I do not know if I would come out alive,” he said.
Farah said he drank everything in the minibar trying to stay calm in spite of the suffocating atmosphere of terror.
After 30 hours, the explosions kept getting louder and louder and smoke began entering the room from fires lit throughout the hotel.”
Farah heard on the news that the Indian Army had finally arrived, but still had no idea whether it was safe to leave. He said when the Indian Special Forces stormed the hotel, there was no way of knowing who was a friend or a foe.
“They started blowing up each room, as they went through each floor. They did not know who were terrorists and who were not,” he said.
He barricaded his room with pieces of furniture, but as the soldiers made their way in through the floor, he desperately tried to get to them.
“They were banging and banging on the door. If I didn’t answer, they would blow up the room. I answered and told them I was a British citizen,” he said.
One of the officers in the room spoke English.
“With their gun pointed at me, they allowed me to get my passport. They spoke to each other and I was allowed to leave the room. Only nine guests remained alive on the floor.”
As he walked through the lobby, Farah understood the terror he had survived.
He said: “There was blood everywhere, shoes, personal items . . . but blood, everywhere. Everybody on the first floor was killed. People I had seen 30 hours before were all dead, all the employees and the people at the bar which I would have been in, they were all dead.”
After watching the movie, Farah says it is a fair depiction of what transpired.
“It is true and very real, but it was far worst. They have not shown all that happened everywhere.”
Farah admitted that since that experience his life is not the same but he is grateful to be alive.
