Bhopal Express (1999) User Reviews

Subtle, moving portrayal of a real life disaster

[Toshiro Mifune · 8/10 · 29 April 2002]

This film relates the real life chemical industrial accident of the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India in 1984. Known as the "Hiroshima" of such industrial tragedies, the gas that leaked from this badly constructed building killed thousands and is still the cause of many deaths every month.

For a first time director, 'Bhopal Express' is handled extremely well. Very little of the actual factory is shown early in the film. Instead, Mahesh Mathai allows the film time and space to build in emotion and intensity displaying a cinematic wisdom that will be exciting to watch grow. The acting is strong and believable and the cinematography, done by Mathai himself, is reminiscent of the graceful, fluent movements of the great Satyajit Ray. Although the ending suffers from a touch of sentimentality, it is almost deserved and allows the narrative to end rising, though not on what you would call a high note.

Putting a human face on a senseless tragedy

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 26 February 2013]

Back in 1984, the Union Carbide chemical factory in Bhopal, India had a serious leak--killing thousands in one night and countless others due to the lingering effects of the toxic gas. This film by Mahesh Mathai is about this disaster. While it could have focused on many people, the movie focuses on one man in particular, a worker at the plant. You see the death, suffering, cover-up and indifference through his eyes and his realization that his beloved employer is at fault---and amazingly indifferent.

The most amazing thing about the film is that the director, Mathai, has only directed one other film. I tried to get more information on him on IMDb and other sites but couldn't really find much. And, considering how good "Bhopal Express" is, it's just amazingly strange that you don't see more Mathai films. Additionally, the acting was very good--with a wonderful emotional range--such that you really do care about him, his friends and his bride.

I noticed that some found the film to be a disappointment. This isn't very surprising, as the event has touched so many lives that you know many will feel that "Bhopal Express" doesn't adequately convey the misery and magnitude of the tragedy. Still, especially for westerners who know far less about the Bhopal disaster, it's a good introduction and puts a human face on the people.

By the way, there is one minor complaint about the DVD and that is that the captions blend in with the background and are occasionally difficult to read. Hopefully your copy will have more readable captions.

Bhopal Express

[folkpoet80 · 7/10 · 17 March 2006]

Aside from the fact that no movie can ever do justice in portraying the plight of people who were and are still being affected by the horrible tragedy that struck Bhopal in 1984, this movie is decently made, but still leaves quite a bit to be desired. Naseeruddin Shah did his cameo well. The lead actor acted well and the actress didn't have much role to play, but her facial expressions were quite good for a newcomer. I personally feel that too much time was spent in shooting the 'bar' scene. Aside from showing the gas leak and minor aftermath, there was nothing in the movie that one hasn't already seen in tons of other documentaries. It is still commendable that the crew picked such an important topic. 7/10

A very good movie, its a must see....!!!

[bk_connection · 9/10 · 24 March 2004]

I have never heard about this movie before , and by accident I donwloaded it. But now that I have seen it Iam glad that I did download it.

This movie is very well made, and all the characters play their parts very good. Especially Naseerudin Shah he is great, and makes you enjoy every single part that he is in.

The Actress in the movies is so beatiful, I have seen her in Thaksak where she had a invicible role, but in htis movie she showed all the Glamourful other Bollywood actresses that she is here for Good.When you see the movie you cant stop falling in love with her, she is so nice and innocent.

Well enough about the actress, but watch this power full movie and learn how corrupt the Companys can be cause of their own benefit.

The Reality of the Bhopal Express

[samyuthsagi · 8/10 · 4 July 2022]

The Bhopal Express depicts the terror of the gas leak and the negligance of the factory in the Bhopal disaster. The disaster occurred between the night of December 2nd and 3rd in a fertilizer plant owned by the Indian subsidiary of the Union Carbide corporation. On that night water was released into a pipe connecting to a storage tank containing liquid MIC. This resulted in an exothermic reaction which caused a leak of 40 tonnes of toxic fumes that killed an estimated 6,000 immediately maiming a further 500,000. The primary composition of this cloud was MIC that was held in storage as a component to manufacture fertilizers. Though the movie claimed hydrogen cyanide was also present this was not found by scientific investigators both from the Union Carbide Corporation and the Indian government. There were however a number of other gasses formed as a result of the various components that leaked into the storage tank for the MIC. This led to a disaster of an unprecedented scale that had lasting impacts with causes for the disaster lying in a lack of investment and consideration for the safety of the workers and surrounding population.

In the scene where the protagonist, Varma, is at the factory, the movie does a good job at pointing out just how bad the lack of maintenance at the factory is. In this scene a worker is fixing a leak and when Varma tells him that the washer is worn out the factory worker claims that everything at the factory makes noise except the alarm. The plant siren was in fact not functional with the siren though in reality the siren in the plant worked however it was decoupled from the alarm meant to warn the public. This meant that while workers at the factory knew immediately that disaster had occurred the public was not fully aware with most people initially beginning to run because they could actually feel the effects of the gas. (ICJB) In addition to this, there were also a number of systems that were not functional due to a lack of maintenance and negligence. Besides water the presence of rest from pipes contributed to the reaction and one of the primary safety measures, a refrigeration system meant to slow down the reaction was broken as of 1982 and never fixed. (Jones, 2015) One of the most outrageous actions taken by the upper management of the factory in the movie was when they told the doctor who called them that the MIC was actually just tear gas. Apparently this actually occurred and despite the company having manuals stating just how deadly MIC was, they continued to lie saying it was just tear gas. (Outlook) This is because there was no antidote for MIC and even now we are only starting to understand the vectors for toxicity. (CDC) In general it seems as though the factory owners were mainly concerned with increasing profits by cutting costs where possible even if it meant to the detriment of the surrounding populations safety.

Where the movie does seem to see a missed opportunity, is in dealing with the long term aftermath of the incident. The gas was very deadly immediately after the leak and this was well conveyed in the scenes where corpses are littered around the streets. The lasting effects from a health and social perspective were arguably greater. In the following decades there were around 20,000 premature deaths. Other health determinants ranged from respiratory and neurobehavioral disorders, to increased loss in pregnancies, chromosomal abnormalities, and neurobehavioral effects. (Broughton, 2005) The plant site, which has been abandoned since the disaster continues to pollute the ground water with carcinogens and other toxic chemicals. (Outlook) Varma and his wife, Tara were able to walk away in the end seemingly unharmed, however, in reality they would likely face at least some of these health complications in the future.

In its runtime, the movie does a good job at highlighting the general immediate impact of the disaster as well as the greed and negligence that allowed it to occur, however an opportunity was missed in talking about the lasting impacts. It could be argued that this is to be expected as the movie for the most part focuses on an individual however that is not a good enough reason. It is able to communicate well without having to go into too specific detail the state of the factory, the attitudes of the owners, and the immediate terror of the incident. There is no reason there couldn't have been a few more scenes depicting how the incident affected Varun and Tara's life in the future as well.

Below expectations

[Vagabonding83 · 7/10 · 27 February 2006]

Having heard so much about this underground movie, of the likes of Black Friday, Paanch and many others which are critically acclaimed for the very reason that hardly anyone has heard about them and this makes the movies worth a watch, I was looking forward to Bhopal Express. There were many reasons, the utmost was the director, Mahesh Mathai, who has directed few Lucky Ali videos, in which I kinda liked his imaginative work. I understand that when you make a movie on a factual event, you have to weave a fictional story around the actual event to make it cinematically presentable, but I would have preferred if the unnecessary love angle was done away with. Nethra Raghuraman looks like she has come straight down from Harvards to essay the role of a stereotypical Indian housewife, as if David Lynch was enough inspiration for her to do this. I am not saying that this is a badly made movie, but just that it is very predictable. There is so much that could have been done to the amazing plot line. Instead of wasting some 30 minutes of on-screen time in useless sequences of Bashir miyan drooling over ZohraBai, they could have shown a different perspective of the Bhopal disaster. Public memory might be short, but Bhopal is something we remember very well, just like Russians can never forget Chernobyl. When the sequence of the gas eruption started, I thought now it will get to a sensible track at least, but it follows the Bollywood tested path of gathering sympathy for the death of a lead character, which was Naseer in this case. Surprisingly, even Naseer hams in this one. And you can trust KK to act in such scenes where a high emotional adrenaline is required, he is no different or unimaginable in his portrayal. Also though the time period has some good detailing, there is a surprising ambiguity in the character development. I did not understand what was the perspective of the director- was he trying to show us why Bhopal happened, or is he lamenting over it being a systemic failure, or is he just trying to cash in on the sad memories of people who lost their near one sin the tragedy? I would have preferred an interspersing of factual details and interviews, that means a documentary could have been better than this weirdly titled movie. Disappointed.

Keeping the disastrous event alive

[pvsavla · 8/10 · 22 March 2010]

The movie was worth watching for the simple fact that, the background of the movie was Bhopal gas tragedy, though focus of the film got stuck for a longer time on the Zohrabai song rather than shedding more light on the tragedy itself. Everything of the movie was interesting but wish more facts and focus was given to the actual event. Nevertheless the whole effort needs to be applauded for bringing the tragedy to limelight again. Such events need to be filmed and documented and in that respect the producer and director of the film have done a service to humanity. The acting and story behind the tragedy was captivating and all the actors did excellent job.

Bold topic, not so well made movie

[anandr-iitk · 6/10 · 22 August 2008]

I appreciate the movie being made to remind people of the old and almost forgotten story of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Very good acting by Kaykay and Naseeruddin Shah. During many of the movie scenes, one almost felt one was there. However, the plot did not seem to hold through the movie. There was almost no development of character for people working in the plant.

Like other people have said, the long scene of Bashir Mian being entertained by Zohrabai could've been shortened. Apart from that, there seem to be some unanswered questions - As with any disaster and news spreading so fast, how is it that the next day 3 PM Bhopal express was not halted long before? For Tara to leave 9 PM one day and return 3 PM the next day, it would indeed make an extremely short trip. If it was actually more than a day later, I would expect news to have spread for sure and also most of the gas have diffused away.

If some of these questions have obvious answers, I would like to hear them. If not, all I have to say is that a story with holes in the plot summary loses its effect.