There are movies that one may miss becuase they are scathed by block buster releases on Fridays. One could miss these movies becuase of the low budget and minimal promos. One could also miss them because of the lack of high octane star cast and appealing locales.
Bhopal express scores very high on all these parameters and therefore.....To sum it up, only one review by Milind Desai on this movie in mouthshut.
For all those who have watched and not watched, Bhopal express is a cult movie set in the backdrop of the tragic Bhopal Gas tragedy in 1984. Made by Mahesh Mathai, an ad-film maker. and scripted by the ad-world brothers Piyush and Prasoon Pandey.
The movie is just a narration, and it doesnot absolutely confirm to the film making formula of Introduction-Buildup-Climax-Message. And that is the beauty of this movie.
Kay Kay Menon plays Verma, a small time supervisor in the Union Carbide Plant, who is deeply in love with his wife Tara (played by Nethra Raghuraman). Verma has a auto driver friend Basheer (Naseeruddin Shah) who has his own views about the neglect of the factory management and the devastated shape the factory is in.
Tara has to visit her mother and Verma pleads for an early leave which is granted. After seeing off Tara at the station, Verma and Basheer head to the local Topaz bar to watch and listen to the beautiful Zohra Bai (Zeenat Aman). While this is on, the factory starts leaking gas and the tragedy begins.
This scene is the meat of the movie. two parallel sequences..
Basheer and Verma enjoying the passes and song of Zohra Bai
The chemical plant oozing noxious smoke and determined to cripple the city.
Amid the smoke, stench, and deadbodies Verma finds a note in his pocket by Tara, which says she will be returning the same day by Bhopal Express. The movie then gets a little seemingly tragic romance tone to it .. with Verma making both ends meet and his desperation to save his wife.
Every scene is shot best. The ones I liked most are:
1.The starting scene where Kay Kay manages to stop a train while he is running towards it and after he rejoices, another train (Bhopal Express) passes him on the adjacent track..the relevance of this is neatly weaved in when Tara is travelling in Bhopal Express and Kay Kay stops the wrong train.
2.The Bhopali dialect spoken by Basheer and the exchange of sher-o-shayari between Verma and Basheer is very enjoyable.
3.Another scene is the one where people are watching (on both sides of the screen) "Amar Akbar Anthony" in an open arena. The movie is at the beginning when the chemical plant hasnt begun leaking..by the time the movie comes to an end..almost all movie watchers are dead by the gas leakage.
- Camera works are brillant when the director wanted to show gas entering houses and theatres, by focusssing on the beam of light in the dark.
In the end , the movie has statistics about no. of deaths, no. of handicaps, the legal battle between people of Bhopal and Union Carbide Plant and that UCL paid on 3% of the amount claimed. To top top it all, the movie mentions that "Till date people thing entire Bhopal Gas Tragedy was a result of one supervisor’s carelessness, Verma’s."
Bhopal Express just narrates what happened on that tragic day. The movie doesnot suggest ways to battle it out, that was done by Erin Brokowich
Kay kay has outdone himself and shows brillant transformation from a goodie goodie shy hubby to an angry supervisor when he sees the management playing with the lives of the workers.
Naseeruddin Shah as usual is again superb. Bhopali dialect and the sher-o-shayari completely suit him.
Nethra Raguraman, did not have much to do but did her part well and gave that lower middle class look very elgantly.
Zeenat Aman -Beautiful
Al in all, this is amovie destined not to be missed!
DVD-Recommended