Description

BHOPAL: A PRAYER FOR RAIN is a gritty, unflinching exploration of contemporary Indian history and environmental justice by up-and-coming director Ravi Kumar. The much-awaited docudrama draws out a timeline leading up to the Bhopal disaster of December 1984, when a Union Carbide pesticide leak killed over 10,000 people in Bhopal, India. Inspired by the true story of award-winning journalist Rajkumar Keswani, Kal Penn narrates the film as Motwani, a passionate local journalist dedicated to resisting the Union Carbide plant. As the film roams through the different layers of Bhopal’s economies, director Kumar notably avoids the usual tropes and voyeuristic gaze on poverty, instead focusing on capturing the rhythms of day-to-day life in Bhopal — its people, their conversations and their livelihoods.

Now, 20 years since the incident, the film brings together celebrated actors from both Hollywood and Indian cinema to tell the poignant story of the immense pesticide plant once located in the heart of the small city of Bhopal.

– Hardeep Jandu

Co-Presenters: 3rd I & Asian Pacific Environmental Network

Credits

Producer: Seemanto Roy, Ravi Walla
Writer: David Brooks, Ravi Kumar
Cinematographer: Anil Chandel, Jean-Marc Selva, Charlie Wuppermann
Editor: Chris Gil
Cast: Mischa Barton, Kal Penn, Martin Sheen, Rajpal Yadav

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