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.
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