The Railway Men (18 Nov 2023)

 

Genre: Historical Drama Tragedy

Channel: Netflix

Language: Hindi

Season: 1

No. of Episodes: 4

Running Time: 51-65 minutes

Writer: Aayush Gupta

Director: Shiv Rawail

Cast: Kay Kay Menon, R. Madhavan, Babil Khan, Divyenndu Sharma, Juhi Chawla

Fact:

Due to leakage of 40 tonnes of lethal methyl- isocyanate from Union Carbide, a US corporation owned pesticide factory in Bhopal on 2 Dec 1984, as per the official data, 3,800 people were instantly killed, most of whom resided in a slum located in the close proximity to the factory. The unofficial data of instant deaths was much higher!!

Till today, the city of Bhopal has not fully recovered from this tragedy.

What led to such a tragic night?

- Low safety standards maintained inside the factory.

- Inapt awareness and training of factory staff.

- The mere presence of such a high risk factory in the populated area and not the vacant outskirts.

Webseries Plot:

The 4 episodes series is primarily about the unsung heroes of Indian Railway whose honest efforts, quick action and sacrifices in ensuring (as much as they could) - the vacation of Bhopal Junction railway station, calling in relief services from all quarters and helping people in exiting Bhopal, helped save a multitude of lives.

The screen credits display the death toll figure to be 15,000!!

Two most heart wrenching scenes from the movie are -

- An infant feeding on his/her mother's breast while she is already dead!

- A soon to be wed full decked up bride coming out of her abode into the street searching for her missing mother, only to find her entire 'baraat' along with the groom lying dead!!

Analysis:

Being the first webseries from the stable of YRF Entertainment, The Railway Men has been made with careful r&d and scripting coupled with apt casting and production design, making it a brilliant series to watch and engage in spite of the tragic massacre it entails.

Kay Kay Menon as the wise, dutiful and extremely concerned station master simply wins your heart with his yet again display of amazing acting prowess.

The actor can emote myriad of emotions sans any dialogue! Also, his continuity throughout the series is awesome.

Babil Khan plays an inexperienced loco pilot with past working experience in the Union Carbide factory with almost perfection. 

His acting is raw, fresh and honest which makes it quite appealing. He is definitely a talent to watch out for.

R. Madhavan plays the GM of the West Central Railway zone. He enters the series quite late but brings in the required clout and star power, which stays till the end.

Divyenndu Sharma plays a robber who eventually ends up as a saviour. His energy and dialect brings in the much required comic relief in the series.

Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Raghubir Yadav, Juhi Chawla Mehta, Mandira Bedi and Sunny Hinduja are other prominent actors that play assorted small but effective roles in the series and help in making it better and wholesome.

Conclusion:

Do watch The Railway Men for it's a well engineered fact based fiction and overall good cinema.