Bhopal Express (1999)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

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.

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.

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

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.