40th Year of Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Muzaffar Ali’s Film Awaits Release
BHOPAL: A documentary on the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 titled ‘Sheeshon Ka Masiha’ (the Lord of glass), made by the celebrated filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, is gathering dust in the archive of the Madhya Pradesh government since last 39 years after being barred from public screening.
The documentary was sponsored by the Madhya Pradesh Madhyam, a wing of the state public relations department, and the maker of Bollywood classic ‘Umrao Jaan’ Mr Ali was hired to document the horrific incident a year after the Bhopal gas tragedy.
The 28.27 minute- documentary, a vivid narration of the trail of devastation and human misery left by the Bhopal gas tragedy made by the survivors, was completed in 1985 and subsequently handed over to the state government.
The documentary has been gathering dust in the archive of Madhya Pradesh Madhyam since then as it has been barred from public screening by the state government due to some ‘unacceptable contents’ in it, a senior officer in the department concerned told this newspaper on Tuesday, requesting not to be quoted.
Release of the short film may open a can of worms with the issue of Bhopal gas tragedy still pending in different courts, the officer apprehended while justifying the move by the state government not to allow its public screening.
Some scenes in the documentary, in which the kin of the slain people were seen narrating how the bodies of the victims were carried in vehicles and disposed of, were found to be ‘unacceptable’ since they were told by the survivors without producing any evidence, sources said.
“The disaster is depicted through mere narratives of the survivors, enlivened by a soulful ghazal of Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz played in the background. I fail to comprehend why the public should be deprived of watching an artistic documentation of the tragedy”, social activist S R Azad said.
The short film begins with the survivors narrating their eye witness accounts of the horrifying and heart wrenching scenes of victims succumbing to the deadly methyl iso-cyanate (MIC) gas on the streets and in the hospitals and ends with the celebration of the first birth anniversary of a girl, born on the day of the tragedy.
The leakage of the MIC in the pesticide plant of the now-closed Union Carbide here on the intervening night of December two-three, 1984 had led to killing of over 15,000 people and maiming of six lakh others.