'The Roads Were Empty. The City Felt Wrong': How Dhurandhar Pulled A Banker Back To The Night Of 26/11

(MENAFN- Live Mint) When Mumbai was attacked on 26 November 2008, the city witnessed 60 hours of bloodshed that left 166 people dead and hundreds injured. For most, the horror unfolded through flickering television screens. But for one senior State Bank of India employee, the ordeal was lived first-hand - not as a spectator, but as someone who had unknowingly been moving along the same paths the terrorists had taken minutes earlier.

Sixteen years later, he recounts his experience to us, now brought back vividly after watching Dhurandhar, Aditya Dhar's latest cinematic retelling of the attacks. What follows is his story - one that sits at the intersection of chance, proximity, and the terrifying fragility of everyday routine.

Also Read | Vivek Agnihotri congratulates Ranveer Singh, Aditya Dhar on Dhurandha succcess Q: You were in the vicinity of the 26/11 attacks. Although you did not directly cross paths with the terrorists, you were close to several affected locations. Could you describe where you were and what you experienced at that specific point in time?

At that time, I was working in my office at one of the State Bank of India's departments, handling a major recruitment project. Most of my colleagues had already left. Suddenly, I received few phone calls, including one from my boss asking if I was still in the office. When I said yes, he told me to close everything immediately and rush home. I asked why, but he only said there was a“certain problem” and that I would understand later.

I did not take it too seriously at first and continued finishing my work. Around 7:45 p.m., I began winding off because a lot of papers were spread out on my workstation and I could not simply leave them unsecured. By the time I came out of my office, I received another call and this time it was from my General Manager. He asked where I was and insisted I leave immediately. He even offered to send his driver to drop me at Churchgate station. I told him not to send the driver with vehicle as I felt I could go on my own. Outside I did sense something serious has happened. Still, I needed to lock everything properly since the repeated calls had me wondering what if something happens and I might not come to office for the next two days.

Around 8:30 p.m., I finally left the office. Outside, the roads were deserted. Someone mentioned that“a dog had been hit”, which made no sense to me. There were no taxis, so I walked to Churchgate - about five minutes. The station was practically empty, which is extremely unusual for that time. I boarded the train, and as we passed Charni Road, the streets were having ghostly look, totally empty. Some people said a“gang war type incident” had taken place near CST.

When I reached Santacruz, I took an auto and reached home. At my building, everyone was standing outside, waiting for me. Inside my flat, my wife's face was filled with panic; she was almost weeping, and my children were also distressed.

Q: When you returned home that night and finally understood what was happening, what was the first thought that came to your mind?

A: I later realised that barely half an hour - perhaps even less - before I crossed that stretch, Kasab and his associate had driven through the very same route. The thought hit me like a shockwave: if their AK rifles had been raised just moments earlier, the firing could have erupted right at that crossing, directly opposite the State Bank building where I worked.

Not long after, I learnt that several of our top executives were trapped inside the Trident Hotel, forced to literally jump over a wall in a desperate bid to escape the gunmen and reach safety.

And then came the news that truly rattled me - a colleague of ours had been shot dead at Leopold Café. He had simply stepped out to meet an old friend after work, completely unaware that he was walking straight into one of the city's darkest nights.

Q. After watching Dhurandhar, what was your reaction? Did it remind you of those days?

A: Yes, it brought everything flooding back-every image I had watched on television during those terrifying two or three days when I was confined to my home. My office existed dangerously close to the epicentre of the carnage: CST, Leopold Café and St Xavier 's on one side and the Hotel Trident on the other, both a few minutes away. I remember vividly that three policemen were gunned down near St Xavier's, after which the terrorists seized their police vehicle.

What shook me later was learning that the jeep's tyre punctured almost outside my office building. They simply abandoned it and switched to the now-infamous white Skoda, which then sped down the very road I used every single day. It is chilling to imagine how narrowly we all escaped.

And another unsettling detail of all-Badhwar Park, the spot where the terrorists first landed on Indian soil that evening, was also directly opposite my office. Everything-the arrival, the escape, the terror movement-had unfolded alarmingly close, almost as if the entire trajectory of the attack had been drawn in a circle around the place where I worked.

Q: Would you say Aditya Dhar's portrayal of 26/11 made you revisit that trauma?

A: Yes, absolutely. He depicted many things very openly. Even in his portrayal of demonetisation, he has shown aspects-such as a minister's son being involved-which no one had previously stated so directly.

More about Dhurandhar

Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar released on December 5. Since the moment the trailer of the film was dropped, the film has been nothing short of an explosion. The film features a stacked star cast led by Ranveer Singh. Other cast members include Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun, Rakesh Bedi, Danish Pandor, Saumya Tandon, and others.

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Dhurandhar is an explosive spy action-thriller that frames a clandestine response to India's most devastating terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijack in 1999 and the 2001 Parliament attack. The film's core plot, inspired by real-life intelligence operations and loosely based on the Pakistan-based 'Lyari Task Force,' follows Ajay Sanyal (R. Madhavan ), the Intelligence Bureau Chief, who devises a mission to infiltrate and dismantle a powerful terrorist network in Pakistan.

For this high-stakes operation, Sanyal recruits Jaskirat Singh Rangi (Ranveer Singh), a young man trained and sent undercover into the dangerous Karachi underworld as 'Hamza Ali Mazari.'

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The ensemble cast also features Akshaye Khanna as the formidable gangster Rehman Dakait, Sanjay Dutt as SP Chaudhary Aslam, and Arjun Rampal as ISI Major Iqbal. While the primary plot focuses on penetrating the underworld nexus, the film strategically features characters and alludes to masterminds behind major attacks, with one actor even briefly portraying Ajmal Kasab, implicitly connecting the narrative to the machinery that orchestrated the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and other high-profile events.

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