manavkum Movie depicts the tale of real life industrial accident - humanity crisis tragedy in 1985 Bhopal, India that killed more than 15000 civilians almost overnight and affected more than half million suffering with dangerous diseases like cancer , asthma and so. Movie captures major events that unfolded, also shows CEO Anderson's visit before accident, carelessness of Union carbide corporation to place such a dangerous industry in middle of fully populated city, and greed or hunger by local governmental body to pass this project to commission. It will inspire viewer to drill down Wikipedia to explore what happened and how affected people got compensated, and who were ever punished or not. It will also make you think about mindless expansion of dangerous industries, third world helplessness and greed and shams by the first world corporations.

in1984 9 of 10. It's definitely a serious subject, but the characters and actors provide enough levity, affection, and humanity to make it far more than a documentary of tragedy. Based on actual history if not a specific true story, this creates a virtual reality for you to step into and experience what it would have been to live in Bhopal, India with the Union Carbide plant.The story is smoothly told with minimal imposed/artificial melodrama or cliché. It's a film that could have benefited from another 5 minutes to provide more context and follow-up history without resorting to putting it in words on the screen before the end credits roll.It's also a learning experience into the chemicals behind the production of pesticides and how corporations deal with safety issues and operations losing money. Worth seeing in a theater or studying closely from within a classroom.

svprakash Special by Sudha Prakash Katherine "Kat" Kramer, Founder of Kat Kramer's Films That Change the World is presenting three socially significant films as part of her Seventh Annual Film Series. She founded Kat Kramer's Films That Change the World to showcase movies that raise awareness about important social issues. She started with Barbra Streisand's Yentl in 2009 and has presented six socially conscious movies and documentaries so far. On April 10th, the annual event kicked off with the film, Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain at the Canon USA Inc., Screening Room, adjacent to the Stanley Kramer Screening Room located on the Sunset-Gower Studios. This year's screening was a moving and vivid depiction of the world's worst industrial disaster in history at Bhopal, India in December 1984 and the colossal destruction of life and the environment. Also this year she established the First Annual Kat Kramer's Films that Change the world, 'Hunt for Humanity Award' which will be presented annually. The first recipient of the award was none other than the legendary 97 Year old actress/ social activist from Hollywood's Golden age, Marsha Hunt. The award was presented by Ken Howard, President of SAG-AFTRA who called her a 'tough cookie' and said it is a privilege to present the award to the incomparable, incandescent, the strong, the brave and the bold Marsha Hunt. The event commenced with the Red Carpet arrival at 5:30 PM followed by the Introductions, Award Presentation and Keynote speeches. The event was attended by Film's Stars Martin Sheen & Mischa Barton, Director and Co-Writer Ravi Kumar, Executive Producers Terrance Sweeney and Leszek Burzynski and Director of Photography Charlie Wuppermann and various other Industry celebrities. Kal Penn who also stars in this film but could not attend, sent a special message which was read by Mischa Barton. The Keynote address was given by Tim Edwards; Executive Trustee of the Bhopal Medical Appeal who spoke about the way the survivors rose up in the face of the Government's apathy to help their community by establishing their own free clinics Chingari and Sambhavna where adults and children are treated with a combination of Western and Eastern medicine. Martin Sheen who plays Warren Anderson , Chairman of Union Carbide spoke about how he could not but say 'yes' to the role. He said that Warren Anderson who lived for thirty years after the tragedy did not want to speak to him or the film makers. So, he stayed truthful to the script and played him as a man who may have had good intentions initially but in the face of the tragedy did not live up to his responsibilities. Martin feels that the subject of the movie is timeless and is a reminder to the mankind and especially to the children that environmental issues are everybody's business and we should be always vigilant against the destruction of our air, water and soil in the name of progress. He said that shooting in India was a great experience and the spirit of India had a tremendous personal impact on him and rekindled his own faith in religion and his return to his catholic roots and spirituality. Bhopal: Praying for Rain is a drama highlighting the terrible events leading up to the poisonous gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide factory at Bhopal, India. Ravi Kumar, the film director deftly weaves the apocalyptic real life events leading to the disaster through the eyes of Dilip an impoverished rickshaw puller turned untrained Union Carbide worker played brilliantly by Rajpal Yadav. Thannishtha Chatterjee ably plays the role of his wife who is happy about her husband's a job in the factory and the steady income and joyfully arranges the marriage of his sister. Kal Penn plays the activist local journalist Motwani who doggedly tries to expose the corporate greed and the local government's ineptitude by publishing several articles about the gross safety violations in the factory. Warren Anderson played remarkably by Martin Sheen flies to Bhopal in the aftermath of the tragedy but fled the country as a warrant is issued for his arrest. He never apologizes nor does anything to alleviate the sufferings of the masses for which his company was clearly responsible. Mischa Barton as a life style journalist who is roped in by Motwani to ask tough questions of Mr. Anderson is quite adequate in her brief role. The drama is intensified at the end of the movie when the deadly gas wafts through the surroundings on a wintry night interspersed with scenes of the wedding guests singing, dancing and feasting only to die horribly along with thousands of others a few hours later. The film is produced by Sahara Movie Studios and Rising Star Entertainment and distributed by Revolver Entertainment. After the screening, Kat Kramer moderated the panel discussion that included the film director, executive producers and the directory of photography. During the discussion, director Ravi Kumar told the audience that he grew up in a city not far from Bhopal and this incident had a profound effect on him. He was surprised that no filmmakers of Bollywood and Hollywood wanted to make a dramatic movie despite this being the major environmental disaster of the 20th century. So he took on the responsibility of making a feature film to re-tell the events leading to the catastrophe and the survivor's indomitable spirit in rising above their bleak circumstances. This was echoed by Tim Edwards who quoted his friend Indra Sinha who wrote that "a great catastrophe, followed by years of illness, poverty and injustice can overwhelm and crush the human spirit or it can enable ordinary people to become extraordinary with the realization that they are not weak or powerless but have the power to bring about great political change, to do good in their community and in the world".

bobbysing Probably I was expecting much hard hitting and revealing stuff from BHOPAL A PRAYER FOR RAIN, a film made on one of the most tragic industrial accidents of the world ruining thousands of life in the year 1984. Nevertheless, the appreciable attempt can still be rated as a simple yet mature take on the shocking event of the last century with some fine performances, excellent cinematography and an apt soundtrack/background score enhancing the overall impact.Beginning calmly taking the viewer into the personal lives of few individuals and their poor families, BHOPAL is short in duration mainly due to the crisp editing and has a docu-drama feel in its narration that turns it into a more realistic and closer to life film right from the initial moments. However may be due to the shorter length and not so powerful writing depicting the harsh truth, the film lacks that emotional connect and the much needed depth in its characterizations on the screen, putting it honestly. As a result it has less intensity than expected, many quick half baked story progressions and not as engaging description as found in the hugely famous book on the tragedy by Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro titled Five Past Midnight in Bhopal. Majorly saved by its remarkable performances, BHOPAL has Rajpal Yadav playing the innocent 'riksha puller' brilliantly, Martin Sheen as Warren Anderson, Chief of the company Union Carbide presented in a highly believable manner and Kal Penn as the newspaper editor with a fine pinch of humour investigating the seriously dangerous matter, running his own newspaper. Tannishtha Chatterjee doesn't get much to do in her few scenes enacted well, Mischa Barton is just fine in her cameo of a foreign journalist and Joy Sengupta is good in his small role of an engineer. But what really stays in your mind even after the film gets over are the 'silently killing expressive' eyes of Fagun Thakrar playing the victim widow. Her eyes really convey the seriousness of the issue much better and the girl could have been used in a different way in order to add more power into the narration as I strongly felt.In all, BHOPAL isn't an exceptionally great film made on one of the most controversial and disastrous incidents of our Indian history (rather world history). Yet it no doubt remains an important worth watching film for its thought provoking subject, particularly for the younger generation born after the mid 80s, who might not have a clear idea of what really happened and how serious it was in those unfortunate times. The film also makes you think about the mysterious conclusions presented by various schools of thoughts about the event's basic cause in the later years. And further surprises you as hell that despite all prior information of the dangers and known serious impact of the chemical on human life, it was still allowed to be stored in such a huge quantity by both the authorities and the political parties together, simply interested in their own personal benefits ignoring the society as a whole as always.Moving ahead on an introspective note, as I feel the BHOPAL Gas Tragedy is actually one of those prominent scary incidents of the last century that is more about GREED than Human NEGLIGENCE or IGNORANCE. In fact a 'Collective Greed' with contributions coming in from everyone involved, ranging from the owners, politicians and journalists to the workers employed in the factory too, witnessing the poisonous chemical stored in an alarming quantity right in front of their eyes, waiting to explode/leak any moment causing a major disaster.In other words, it was not a sudden and unexpected event at all. Many around the venue, including the journalists and the working engineers apart from the owners very well knew about the probable serious consequences of the lethal storage and yet decided to let it continue for their own personal reasons evidently. In specific terms, where the owners/politicians had the money and power as their greed, the investigative journalists had the shocking front page stories in their thinking minds and the poor employees had their secured job and incoming monthly pay essentially required to run their families becoming their unavoidable greed, forcing them to ignore everything else around, even at the stake of their own lives.Therefore it was this various forms of GREED playing as the main culprit behind the avoidable failure and the fact rightly proves the reason why GREED finds its 3rd important place in the list of five basic evils found in our human psyche namely Kaam (Sex), Krodh (Anger), Lobh (Greed), Moh (Love/Affection) and Ahankaar (Ego) as stated in our ancient scriptures.Coming back to the language of cinema, there was another film made on the subject back in 1999 titled BHOPAL EXPRESS featuring Kay Kay Menon, Naseeruddin Shah, Zeenat Aman, Vijay Raaz, Nethra Raghuraman and more. Sadly the film is not known to many and was also a more melodramatic take on the issue with an interesting soundtrack including the names of Jagjit Singh, Lucky Ali, Ila Arun and even Amitabh Bachchan giving his powerful voice over. Arguably it was not a great interpretation on the screen but was certainly a well intentioned attempt from the makers ignoring any commercial aspects of film-making looking for some quick returns.Now comparatively BHOPAL A PRAYER FOR RAIN is surely many steps ahead than the 1999 film to be precise. But if you are really interested in knowing and experiencing more about this sad, unfortunate catastrophe, the city of Bhopal had to face in that ugly night of December 1984, then do watch both these movies and then essentially read Five Past Midnight in Bhopal by Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro too as a must, in order to get a more realistic and hard hitting, larger picture of this unforgettable tragedy, still affecting life forms in that particular region, even after three long decades of painful sufferings.