''The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984'' is a 2023 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

television miniseries about railway workers who saved many lives during the 1984 toxic gas leak at the chemical company Union Carbide India Limited's plant in

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

. It is produced by YRF Entertainment (the streaming division of

Yash Raj Films Yash Raj Films (YRF) is an Indian film production and distribution company founded by filmmaker Yash Chopra in 1970. Since 2012, it has been led by his son Aditya Chopra. The company mainly produces and distributes Hindi films. History In 19 ...

) and stars R. Madhavan,

Kay Kay Menon Krishna Kumar Menon (born 2 October 1966), known professionally as Kay Kay Menon, is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Hindi cinema, and occasionally in Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu films. He is best known for his roles in fil ...

Divyenndu Divyendu Sharma (born 19 June 1983), known mononymously as Divyenndu, is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films and series. He had his break-out role in the comedy ''Pyaar Ka Punchnama'' (2011), winning the Screen Award for Best Male Debut, ...

and Babil Khan. Sunny Hinduja and Juhi Chawla Mehta play supporting roles. Filmed from December 2021 to May 2022, all four episodes of the miniseries were released on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

on 18 November 2023.

Premise

''The Railway Men'' is based on railway workers who saved many lives during the 1984 gas tragedy at the chemical company Union Carbide India Limited's plant in

. The series is inspired by the efforts of station master Ghulam Dastagir and his team at the

Bhopal Junction railway station Bhopal Junction railway station (station code: BPL) is a major railway junction of India and main railway station of Bhopal, the capital of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. This station also serves as a connecting point for various ...

on the night of the tragedy.

Cast

Main

* R. Madhavan as Rati Pandey, the general manager of the

Central Railway zone Central Railway (abbreviated CR) is one of the 19 zones of Indian Railways. Its headquarters are located at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai. It has the distinction of operating the first passenger railway line in India, which opened ...

of the

Indian railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

as Iftekaar Siddiqui, the station master of the

as Balwant Yadav, a robber masquerading as a

police constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an police officer, officer within a police ser ...

* Babil Khan as Imad Riaz, an inexperienced loco pilot

Recurring

Episodes

Production

''The Railway Men'' marked the directorial debut of Shiv Rawail, who was an assistant director at

. It also marked the first streaming fiction series of the company, under their subdivision YRF Entertainment. The series began filming on 1 December 2021 and wrapped on 11 May 2022.

Release

Two former employees of Union Carbide India Limited, convicted in the gas leak case, filed a plea to prevent the release of the series; the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the High courts of India, high court of the States and union territories of India, states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily ...

rejected their case. The series was released on

on 18 November 2023.

Reception

Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in found ''The Railway Men'' to be a "compelling saga of ordinary heroism"; she particularly praised the production design by Rajat Poddar for his "remarkably faithful recreations" of the era. Sonil Dedhia of

News18 Network18 Media & Investments Limited, ( d/b/a Network18 Group) is an Indian media conglomerate owned by the Reliance Industries, headed by Mukesh Ambani. Rahul Joshi is the managing director, chief executive officer and group editor-in-chief ...

considered it a "passionate, emotionally resonant, and incredibly moving" tale of under-appreciated heroes, but felt that too many subplots and backstories prevented it from being a "taut thriller". Mayur Sanap of

Rediff.com Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

commended Rawail for handling the tragic event with "seriousness and respect without going overboard with the dramatic impact". ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

Shubhra Gupta Shubhra Gupta is an Indian film critic who writes for ''The Indian Express''. She received the Ramnath Goenka Award for Best Writing on Cinema in 2012. She was a member of the Central Board of Film Certification from 2012 to 2015. She is the au ...

termed it "a worthy effort, which brings back an expansive, old-fashioned style of storytelling to a still-relevant event", and particularly praised the performances of Kay Kay Menon and Babil Khan. ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...

'' Zinia Bandyopadhyay considered Khan to be the "real star of the show".

Saibal Chatterjee Saibal Chatterjee is an Indian film critic, editor and documentary screenwriter. He was a columnist at ''BBC News'', ''Business Standard'', ''Hindustan Times'' and '' The Financial Express''. He has also written for ''The Telegraph'', ''The Tim ...

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

opined, "''The Railway Men'' is buoyed by a clutch of laudable performances and storytelling that does not slide below a certain level of competence. But it could have been much, much more." ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...

'' Santanu Das believed that the series' handling of the tragedy was not at par with the handling of the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

by the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

miniseries ''

Chernobyl Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...

'' (2019).

References

External links

*
''The Railway Men''
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Railway Men 2023 Indian television series debuts Hindi-language television shows Netflix television dramas Indian historical television series Television shows set in Madhya Pradesh Television series based on actual events Disaster television series Television series set in 1984 Bhopal disaster