Bhopal Express

By Anjou Giri

Ratings: *  *  * Mediocre
Special Comment: Mathai could have lent more substance to the film.
Anything more:Zeenat cannot look like a Zohra Bai anytime!
The film offers:Moments of adulterated laughter.

Though the film generated a lot of pre-release interest, it drew a lot of flak in the reviews. Primarily because the excellent ad-man-turned-director had not been able to make an impressive gut-wrenching film with a subject like the Union Carbide gas tragedy of 1985 in Bhopal. The movie opens to Sharma (Kay Kay), the protagonist, running like a madman on the tracks, trying to stop an incoming train. This is a gripping scene, where Sharma manages to halt the train in time ... a frenzy of happiness exploding to mute horror, when the Bhopal Express, the train he wants to stop, speeds past on the other track.

A flashback shows love scenes between the newly wed, Sharma and his wife (Nethra), with one awkward love-making scene before she departs for her own home. However, the scene preceding that is almost comical. Likewise, there are other breakpoint moments of an everyday householder's life - buying an aphrodisiac from the quack, cuppa, guppa and shairis shared with friends and colleagues, wife doing puja, work in the factory. In the entire film, the focus is on Sharma; his mundane life and the slow build-up to the gas tragedy. The only time Sharma is out of focus is when the boardroom meetings are shown, where discussions on the factory's technical dangers are held by the foreign directors. A very cut and paste affair, where third world countries are discussed as expendable, and so we viewers prepare for the ultimate gas tragedy, which incidentally happens to be considered in the same breath as the Hiroshima bombing.

Here, one character, Bashir (Naseeruddin Shah) stands out in the midst of faces. His role too is pivotal as the second protagonist. Other than Kay Kay, Naseeruddin Shah, as the ex-factory employee-turned-rickshaw driver is the only character giving life to the scenes. Zeenat Aman as Zohra Bai in the bazaar looks pathetic; the camera should not have panned her face, it was rather unkind. In the scene where Naseer flirts with the famed Zohra Bai, one can actually see that his eyes are deadpan, when it is supposed to be full of lust/interest. While Kay Kay, as the sensitive husband, has his nuances of good performance, Nethra Raghunathan could do better. While, the night characters colour the moods in the mehfils, the gas begins leaking; at first, a pretty white/grey streak in the skies and then, the rest is history.

There are patches of photographic brilliance, an ad-man's way of capturing emotions even while it speeds by - death, hope, anger, manipulation and yes, life. The film, when it starts, has interestingly shown the beginning of the end; a film that captures our imagination, only to disappoint.

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