BHOPAL: A PRAYER FOR RAIN SHOWS HOW THE PRAYER WAS ANSWERED
In 1984, 40 tons of chemicals leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, resulting ultimately in some 22,000 deaths and 550,000 injuries. Two years earlier, the company was warned about the problem, as alarm and safety systems were scaled back to reduce costs resulting from the failure of the company to sell pesticides to local farmers due to serious drought. Bhopal tells about that disaster from the days when fictional Dilip (played by Rajpal Yadav), desperately in need of a job, is hired by the company to succeed a previous safety worker who died from exposure to an acid leaking from one of the pipes, one of many examples portrayed of inadequate worker safety (though filming is at a plant in Hyderabad). Warren Anderson, president of Union Carbide (Martin Sheen), explains that the aim of the plant was to help India after its loss in war with China that led to India’s friendship with Russia, and that the plant was supposed to be built far from a population center, whereas the government allowed thousands to live around such a lucrative source of employment. The film shows bribe money paid to local authorities, and titles at the end point out many facts. Two years later, an Indian court subpoenaed Anderson for questioning and placed him in custody upon arrival in the country. Anderson posted bail, returned to the United States, and has refused to return to India. In 1986, Union Carbide, sued in an American court, offered a settlement, whereupon the court transferred jurisdiction to India. In 1989, the Indian government accepted an out-of-court settlement with $470 million for the victims. However, the company abandoned the plant without cleaning up the toxic chemicals (as later filmed in the movie), so poisons remain to haunt the people, and about one person per day dies from the lingering exposure. In 1992, Anderson was declared a fugitive by an Indian court for failing to appear as a defendant charged with manslaughter. In 2001, Dow Chemical Company bought Union Carbide, which thereby hoped thereby to escape liability, but the Indian court then added Dow to the lawsuit and asked the U.S. government to extradite Anderson, a request that has been refused. In June 2010, seven former employees of the Union Carbide subsidiary, all Indian nationals, were convicted of causing death by negligence, sentenced to two years imprisonment, and fined about $2,000, but they were later released. Litigation seeking damages for personal injury, medical monitoring, property damage, and injunctive relief to clean up the drinking water for residents near Bhopal has thus far failed in American courts. Directed by Ravi Kumar, a title at the beginning expresses the hope that the film will serve to lessen such disasters in the future. The Political Film Society has nominated Bhopal: A Prayer for Rainas best film exposé and best film on human rights of 2014. MH