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BHOPAL
EXPRESS is the charming and heartbreaking story of a romance
set against the deep tragedy of the Union Carbide gas disaster
in Bhopal in 1984.
Verma is a man much in love with his new wife, Tara. When
she has to go back to her parents' house for a visit, Verma
begs time off the factory where he is a supervisor, in order
to have a little more time with her. After seeing her off
at the railway station, he is persuaded to spend the evening
with his friend Basheer Miya, a wordly and witty auto-rickshaw
driver who has more than a few barbs to throw at the chemical
plant, owned by Union Carbide, where Verma works.
While the two of them are arguing away the evening at the
Topaz Bar, enlivened by the ageing but still sultry courtesan
Zohrabai, memorably portrayed by Zeenat Aman, the factory
is about to change their lives forever. This is one of the
most powerful scenes of the film. As Verma and Basheer banter
the evening away, Zohrabai's song, "Aaj ghar na jaana",
(Don't you go home tonight) gains an unbearable poignancy,
intercut with eerie shots of the darkened plant where the
fatal errors born of greed and neglect are already underway.
The scenes that follow are very terrible and for a long time
the film was not shown in Bhopal for fear of reviving those
unbearable memories. At the height of the disaster, with people
falling dying in the streets, and the city as far as the railway
station and the old market enveloped in the killing cloud,
Verma finds a note tucked in his pocket by Tara, telling him
that she will greet her parents and catch the next train back.
She will be returning on the Bhopal Express.
Brothers Piyush and Prasoon Pandey have written a literate
and intelligent script, full of fragments of poetry, appropriate
homage to a Bhopal which, until turned into a gas chamber
by Union Carbide, was known mainly as a city of exquisite
manners and high culture. To this day shairis, or poetry recitals
are as popular in Bhopal as movies. It contains many beautifully
observed moments of life in the streets and homes of ordinary
Indians, a realism not much seen in Indian cinema since the
days of Satyajit Rai, and wonderfully evokes the atmosphere
of an Indian city of twenty years ago. It could have been
any city, but it was Bhopal.
Bhopal Express has won awards and become a cult movie
among students and connoisseurs, but it has never achieved
a wider release than the art circuit. This is because it does
not compromise, eschewing the dozen songs with dance routines
that might have made it a Bollywood success (Zeenat Aman's
singing actually furthers the plot, a concept unknown to Bollywood),
yet refusing to pander to western audiences, making them listen
to Hindi dialogue with English subtitles. Unfortunately this
puts its subtleties out of reach to those who do not speak
Hindi, who will miss touches like the authentic and delightful
Bhopali dialect spoken by Basheer and his fellow auto-rickshaw
drivers.
This is a big movie that only a few have seen. It has not
yet found a release in the US where it has only been seen
mostly at private screenings, Americans it seems being unwilling
to see or hear anything that challenges their idea of themselves
as champions of freedom, right and truth. Yet in college campuses
across America and Europe people are talking about this film,
and it is destined not to be forgotten.
You can see it for yourself, right here and now. No ticket
needed, but if you wish, you can make a donation to the Bhopal
Medical Appeal.
We on the Bhopal websites of bhopal.fm,
bhopal.org, bhopal.net
and studentsforbhopal.org
are indebted to Mahesh Mathai for giving us permission to
screen his film, and wish to acknowledge the help and support
of the UK's Community
Media Association, who digitised the movie for us and
are exhibiting it as part of their media Showcase.
CREDITS:
Director - Mahesh Mathai
Producer - Deepak Nayar
Producer - Philip Von Alyensleben
Producer - Tabrez Noorai
PERFORMERS
Kay
Kay - BABULAL VERMA
Nehra Raghuraman - TARA VERMA
Vijay Raaz - BADRU
Zeenat Aman - ZOHRABAI
Naseeruddin Shah - BASHEER MIYA
LANGUAGE
Hindi with English subtitles
RUNNING
TIME
98 minutes
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