Bhopal, A Prayer For Rain: Subject is potent enough

BHOPAL A PRAYER FOR RAIN
Staring: Martin Sheen, Mischa Barton, Kal Penn, Rajpal Yadav, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Fagun Thakrar, Vineet Kumar, Lisa Dwan
Rated: 6/10
The Bhopal Gas leak tragedy of December 2, 1984 was so potent and the plight of the victims so moving that even when a loosely stitched together caper on the deadly leak comes 30 years later, it stuns you into shame and silence — shame because it is yet again in the open for all to see that for the Indian Government the price of the life of its citizens is dirt cheap; and silence because all safety norms were ignored with impunity, Warren Anderson (played to perfection by Martin Sheen in the film) was allowed to escape and generations of families close to the Union Carbide factory continue to suffer in neglect.
Ravi Verma’s docu drama Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain brings this unfortunate story of apathy and neglect of an entire population back to public memory as the tragedy turns 30 — maiming, silencing, blinding and killing many people down the years.
The compensation for those who survived was a paltry `25k while the dead and gone got around `1 lakh each. Warren Anderson died this December without ever being put on trial in India. Union Carbide was bought over by Dow Jones but without taking over the liabilities. The Indian Government of that time stands accused by the public of ignoring the magnanimity of the disaster which was well predicted and entirely man-made.
Verma has taken some artistic license to build up the drama around the incident which, in my personal view, would have been equally if not more impactful if it had been documented as was. The journalist who is credited to have followed up the case from much before the gas leak comes to you in beach-wear like clothes and is highly caricaturised, and to bad effect.
But these are small niggles, the tragedy as I said is just too potent to not find currency for a docu-drama like this one which should be seen in the memory of those thousands who died and for something that can still be done for those who survived, only to live an ailing hellish life.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 7 December 2014

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