Bhopal Express (1999)

Undescribable Perfection

Simply A Masterpiece

best movie i've ever seen.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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.

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.

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.

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.