Dinesh Kamath's column on film 'The Attacks of 26/11' under the title 'New movie-releases in Navi Mumbai' that was published in Newsband

The Attacks of 26/11

The Attacks of 26/11 is a Hindi crime-thriller film, based on the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The film is directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film stars Sanjeev Jaiswal who plays the role of terrorist Ajmal Kasab, with art direction by Uday Singh. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) passed the film, uncut, with an 'Adults Only' certificate.

The film has Nana Patekar as Rakesh Maria, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Sanjeev Jaiswal as Ajmal Kasab, Atul Kulkarni, Ganesh Yadav as Amar Singh Solanki, captain of trawler MV Kuber and Farzad Jehani as himself, owner of Leopold Cafe.

Under the art direction of Uday Singh a replica of Taj Hotel was created with a cost of 2.5 crore. Varma auditioned 500 applicants and selected Sanjeev Jaiswal to play Ajmal Kasab, the prime accused terrorist in the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. Varma had also asked policemen to watch 15-minute trailer of The Attacks of 26/11. The film is restricted to the night of the incident and has focused on the happenings between 9 pm to 1 am when Kasab was caught. The shooting of the film was completed on December 10, 2012 with last shot of the massacre at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station. The owner of Leopold Cafe plays himself in the film. 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.

The Attacks of 26/11 has been selected for Berlin International Film Festival, 2013 in the Panorama as well as the Competition section.

The first song from The Attacks Of 26/11 was released at the Leopold Cafe on February 11, 2013 at exactly the time when the terror attacks began on the cafe and Mumbai city. There's one song in The Attacks of 26/11, a background song sung by Sukhwinder Singh composed by Rushin. There are total four songs in the film. The lyrics of the songs are written by Irshad Kamil, Jaspreet Jasz and Liaqat Jafri. The songs are Maula Maula sung by Sukhwinder Singh, Rooshin Dalal, Aatanki Aaye by Shreya Ghoshal, Shabab Sabri, Aman Trikha, Khoon Kharaba Tabaahi by Kamil Chaitra Ambadipudi, Raghupati Raghav and Nazam track 26/11 by Chorus. 

Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it 2 out of 5 and stated that except Maula Maula the rest of the songs are average to hear and may just enhance the film's narrative to some extent.