The Railway Men - The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984

Do you know the punishment for taking a life in this country?

Can you tell us who you've arrested?

Mr. Gokhale, Mr. Manohar and Mr. Anderson.

-You've arrested Mr. Anderson… -Yes.

-…the world chairman? -Yes, we have.

Mahatma Gandhi once said,

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

He was right.

But the man who killed him got the death penalty.

Well, that was Gandhi's life.

We're here to solve a problem.

And I'm here as a representative of the US government

to lend any assistance possible.

So what are you going to do now?

I'm gonna try and get in to see Mr. Anderson.

And have him freed?

Whatever needs to be done.

The truth is that, in this country,

if there's something cheaper than sea salt and homespun cloth,

it's the life of the common man.

"Non-violence is the supreme religion."

Isn't that what Gandhi said?

But what happens when someone violates that religion in this country?

What happens when someone takes 15,000 lives?

As punishment, he gets a government-issued plane,

with VIP service.

Champagne, caviar,

and a grand ride back home.

And the rest of us?

We have always been here. We are still here,

and we will be here forever.

Striving to find the meaning of Gandhi's teachings,

in a country that neither punishes those who take lives,

nor rewards the ones who save them.

Sir!

Good morning, Abbu.

…innings and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan took six wickets.

With his spin bowling…

-Munisa, a cup of tea please. -What?

I haven't prepared breakfast yet.

No, I'm not hungry. Tea is enough.

What happened? Aren't you on the night shift today?

Yes, but the Ijtema pilgrims will be coming tonight.

I have to prepare the station.

Nonsense.

When a big tree falls,

the ground below it trembles.

The Sikhs are going through hell…

…and look at him.

His mother was killed, son.

After such a tragedy, it's difficult to tell right from wrong.

Ammi, you don't know how the world works, so forget it.

What about the job, Nawaz? Did you go to the bureau?

I told you there's a posting in the Railways.

It's a decent job.

They pay well too. What else do you want?

Abbu, I've told you a thousand times,

I won't spend my life in a black suit, bowing down to the government.

I have an interview tomorrow at Union Carbide.

Union Car--

You want to work there?

They have no morals, no ethics.

They'll go to any length to make profits. And you want to work there?

Do you want to earn respect or just money?

The MIC has gone up to 100 degrees! Check the pressure!

Pressure is shooting up! 25 PSI!

The MIC tank can't handle such pressure!

The temperature and pressure are out of control!

Do something before the gas starts leaking!

Someone call Mr. Kamruddin!

Inform the control room!

-Take him to the medical wing! -Go!

Shit!

How did this happen?

Should we burn the gas with the flare, sir?

The flare tower hasn't been working for 3 months.

-Were you washing the pipes? -I don't know anything about that, sir.

-Did you fix the slip blinds? -Slip blinds? What are those?

Where are you going, sir?

To check the tanks.

The MIC tank can blow up if it gets hot.

It's ice cold. Fucking hell.

The meter at the plant is faulty!

-Everything is fine! -Okay, sir.

Pressure 2 PSI.

Temperature 10 degrees.

Everything is fine.

Your gauge is faulty. Get rid of it.

Get to work.

-Sir. -We can work without panicking, you know?

-Don't hit the alarm without checking-- -Don't worry, Kamruddin.

I got the alarm for you.

I don't want to hear that sound

unless someone is dead

or dying.

Find the worker who hit the alarm, get rid of him.

Yes, sir.

Keep panicking! Well done.

You know everything, Kumawat bhai. Why do you want to hear it again?

Well, I told you, the lawyer from Delhi wants to hear it.

He wants to see if our case will hold water.

It's your first day at work.

It's not easy to get a job with the Railways.

You're responsible for three more people now.

I'm doing this for them, Ammi.

And I won't lie. To some extent, for myself too.

-I'm recording, Imad. -Okay.

So, Mr. Mirchandani, hear it for yourself and decide.

My name is Imad Riaz.

Tehsil Berasia, District Bhopal.

Do you work at Union Carbide?

No. I used to.

What did you do there?

I used to drive their trucks.

Carbide makes chemicals for crops.

To kill the bugs. Pesticides.

And to make that pesticide, Carbide uses a chemical called MIC.

Methyl isocyanate.

Where does this MIC come from? Is it made at the factory or imported?

Now it's made here.

It wasn't before.

It would come in big ships from America.

My job was to drive it from Trombay port to Bhopal.

What type of a chemical is this?

Could you tell me more about it?

The engineer used to call it liquid dynamite.

It was the factory's most dangerous and unstable chemical.

It's kept buried under cement.

They have three 40-ton tanks.

Three tanks full of MIC.

They fear it, and rightfully so.

Why?

I used to transport the barrels in my truck.

It'd be raining.

And the barrels weren't even sealed properly at times.

If even a single drop of water mixes with MIC,

it can wreak havoc.

It turns into poison gas and spreads in the air.

One breath of it, and it's all over.

What do you mean? Didn't you wear masks?

They never gave us any.

You didn't ask?

Ask? I…

I asked, complained, made a ruckus.

And? Didn't they take action?

They did. They kicked me out.

Excuse me.

It's ready.

Hand it to him.

-How much? -20 paise.

Who fired you? And who runs the factory now?

One Mr. Madsen. A white man from America.

-Sir… Sir-ji… -I'm done with this fucking place.

Dust, heat and bad news, that's all I get here.

But safety is a problem, sir-ji.

The flare tower is out of order.

The MIC tanks have been without refrigeration for two months.

The workers don't know when or how to wash pipes.

What will happen when something bad happens?

A single drop of water and that chemical can react--

I don't need a fucking chemistry lesson from you, Kamruddin.

But all our fail-safes are compromised.

You think I haven't told them?

Check these telexes out.

The only reply I get back is a "no."

Do you know why?

Annual reports.

Look at the balance sheets. We're constantly in the red.

1980, '81, '82, '83, all red.

Indian farmers, damn them, don't seem to want our pesticide.

The bosses know this.

Why would they sanction money for a loss-making operation?

I have heard that too. They're closing the factory, sir?

I never said that.

All I'm saying is I have a job to do, and so do you.

I'll deal with management. You convince the workers all is fine.

But, sir, I'm worried about--

I'm worried, too, Kamruddin!

About the fucking press!

This motherfucker has mentioned details of the 1982 report!

The bloody C.S. Tyson report.

Someone's talking.

On the inside.

Now, I'm showing a set of photographs to Mr. Riaz.

Imad, do you recognize them?

Yes.

They had visited the factory.

In 1982.

They checked the machines, the safety measures.

They inspected the trucks too.

They were from America.

To be clear, this is C.S. Tyson we are talking about.

He wrote a report on the safety issues in Bhopal factory.

Imad, did anything change after his visit?

Did they improve safety measures?

Carbide didn't lift a finger.

Things went on like before.

And… And then…

And then there was a leak,

and an innocent worker lost his life.