When recreating for cinema such incidents of violence and terrorism that fittingly evoke no sympathy, choosing to humanise characters of terrorists can be a risky deal to pull off. However, in the Friday release, Hotel Mumbai — based on the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks — director Anthony Maras navigates this path, nonetheless.

A case in point being a scene where an injured gunman makes a phone call to his parents in Pakistan, enquiring if they had received the money for the mission he's currently on. Oblivious about the mission, the parents hope he succeeds, but inform him that they haven't received the money. In that moment, the young gunman wails in pain, knowing that despite his inevitable death, the deeds he'd committed amounted to nothing.