Film makes worldwide commercial premiere in New York City.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: The much awaited film on the terrible Bhopal gas tragedy that took place almost 30 years ago, Bhopal – A Prayer for Rain, written and directed by Ravi Kumar, will make its worldwide commercial premiere in Manhattan on November 7th, a month ahead of its release in theaters in India, on December 5th.
Based on the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, which killed more than 10,000 people, permanently disabled at least 40,000 people, and continues to haunt the city in Madhya Pradesh to this day with water contamination and a death a day being attributed to its effects, the film has already won raves from critics and audiences alike at the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Pan Asia Film Festival in London.
Martin Sheen plays the role of the much reviled Warren Anderson, the chairman and CEO of Union Carbide which held majority stake in the pesticide plant that caused the deaths. Anderson was considered a fugitive and absconder in India, after evading trial there and then later escaping extradition with the help of the US government.
Anderson died on September 29th of this year in Florida, the news of which was reported today. Read The American Bazaar story on Anderson here:
The film, which debuts at the Village East Cinema on November 7, and will open in additional cities in the US throughout November, also stars Kal Penn and Mischa Barton in lead roles. The cast also features Indian actors Tannishtha Chatterjee, Rajpal Yadav, and Satish Kaushik.
According to the synopsis of the film, Dilip, a rickshaw driver in Bhopal, lands himself a job at the Union Carbide plant. It is a chance to prove his worth to his family and pull them out of poverty. The job is tough with long hours; everyone is desperate to hold on to their pay check and so Dilip keeps quiet when he notices managers at the plant ignoring safety standards.
Dilip’s long time friend, Motwani, a tabloid journalist knows that Bhopal residents complain of the constant stench in the air and wake up at night choking from the gas. He is on a mission to expose what he believes is a deadly time bomb ticking away in his home town. He feels as if no one will listen but when he meets feisty American journalist, Eva, he sees a ray of hope and persuades her to confront Carbide executive Warren Anderson.
As Eva and Motwani endeavor to delve deeper into Carbide’s activities, Dilip is using every resource necessary to pay and plan for his sister’s wedding. When the wedding night arrives, the family is full of joy and celebration as two families join together as one. But as the music plays, an invisible catastrophe is working its way throughout the town and wedding party. One by one the guests start to feel unwell. The largest tower at the Carbide plant spews poisonous gas into the night air; one by one they collapse; and one by one they unknowingly become a statistic in the world’s largest chemical disaster to date.
Nearly 30 years later as the plant stands as a ghost-like constant reminder, the water in Bhopal is still contaminated and one person a day dies as a direct result of the tragedy, Eva visits the now retired Anderson. Will he finally bow down and apologize? Or will he continue to deny that Carbide had any part to play?
Watch the trailer of Bhopal – A Prayer for Rain: