‘The Railway Men’ Ending Explained: Remembering the Forgotten Heroes

The Big Picture

• The Railway Men emphasizes that large-scale tragedies are often caused by human apathy and negligence, rather than evil intentions.
• The show focuses on the heroes within the Bhopal Railway junction who worked tirelessly to save lives during the devastating gas leak incident.
• Despite the tragic outcome, The Railway Men tells a necessary and impactful story with sincerity, compassion, and regret.

It’s always difficult to figure out the right approach to the retelling of a large-scale disaster. Do you focus on the larger picture with politics, do you look at an individual victim or do you follow the heroic figure who puts the disaster to an end? In this regard, The Railway Men’s approach is very fresh and focused, limiting itself to the night of December 2 in 1984 inside the Bhopal Train Junction after a disastrous gas leak makes the air deathly. We are aware that a lot is happening outside the junction, we are shown as much, but the tension pent-up within the railways is so intense that we just want to hang around, no matter how poisonous the atmosphere gets. We have, after all, the company of great men from Indian Railways, and their presence ensures that all will be well. Here is how The Railway Men commemorates the forgotten heroes of the Bhopal Gas Leak incident.

‘The Railway Men’ Shows the Deadly Cost of Negligence

It’s instinctual to look at a large-scale tragedy and imagine a cruel, evil person behind it. But The Railway Men shows us that it doesn’t require the devil to cause suffering; humans are more than adept at it through plain apathy. The Railway Men is the retelling of a devastating gas leak that killed thousands of people and maimed many yet unborn in Bhopal during 1984. But more woeful is perhaps the fact that it was an easily avoidable accident. Union Carbide is a factory operating in Bhopal, India that makes heavy use of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) in its production. The problem with this chemical, however, is that whenever it interacts with water, it evaporates and turns the air into poison that can kill a person in a matter of days, if not minutes.

The American factory owners are well aware of the danger, but they are unwilling to do anything about it. They carelessly cut corners within every safety procedure — a month-long mandatory training period reduced to two weeks, no masks for the factory workers, unrefrigerated MIC tanks, etc. — anything to turn the balance sheet green. The factory owners are aware of this too, but their product isn’t selling very well, so they decide not to invest any further in a loss-making operation. One fateful day, what was feared finally transpires when two under-trained workers leave the water on for too long without applying failsafes, allowing the water to reach the MIC tanks. Almost instantly, havoc ensues. The Railway Men shows us the chaos in great detail, at an unhurried pace, forcing us to soak in every individual devastation of life. People start coughing till they start foaming before collapsing to their death — young or old, no one is spared. Our main focus of the story, then, becomes the Bhopal Railway junction, where everyday men rise to become heroes.

The Railway Men Excellently Fleshes Out Its Characters

Our guide into this busy junction is Imad Riaz (played with commendable sincerity by Babil Khan), who has recently joined the railways as a locomotive pilot. Previously, he worked as a truck driver for Union Carbide but was fired after raising safety concerns and protesting against their negligence. He is earnest, honorable and hardworking and repairs damaged engines at the railyard. He’s also one of the first people to realize what has happened after the air fills with a putrid stench — like “boiled cabbage” comments a character — and people start falling to death within minutes. He regroups with the rest of the characters at the main junction, where all the staff and passengers are holed up inside the station’s waiting zone.

The man in charge is Iftekaar Siddiqui (played with just the right balance of uprightness and helplessness by Kay Kay Menon), a kind and dutiful Station Master, who is committed to saving as many lives as he can. His unquestioned loyalty to serve falls in the historic line of heroic service people who have sacrificed their lives for the wellbeing of their customers. Through painful flashes, we learn that Iftekaar is still haunted by a train accident where he failed to save the life of a young boy. A decade had passed since the accident, but it still gives him sleepless nights. 10 years later, he yet again finds a crisis threatening the people he serves, but this time he isn’t going to let anyone die on his watch. Aiding him to calm the people is the police constable Balwant Yadav (played by a playful and courageous Divyendu Sharma). No one knows this but Balwant is actually the notorious Express Bandit who has established a reputation for robbing railways across India. He arrived at the Bhopal Junction with the same intention, but he later gets intimidated and inspired by the Station Master’s righteousness and chooses to help the victims.

The people trapped inside Bhopal Junction are certain that they’ve been left for dead, that no help is on the way. And they’d be right. The response from the government was cruel apathy — to let the chemicals in the air disappear on their own. What’s more, the authorities strictly prohibit any rescue efforts in a misguided attempt at preventing extra losses. But this was too much for Rati Pandey (Madhavan), the GM of Central Railways, to bear. When asked how many members he had in his family, Rati says “1,572,211” — the number of people employed by Indian railways — and he couldn’t sit still while his family died. At the time of the gas leak, Rati happened to be at the railway station neighboring Bhopal Junction for an inspection. So, he delivers a poignant speech to the staff, gathers volunteers and medical supplies and heads to Bhopal Junction determined to help his people. Unintentionally, he also incites a compassionate rebellion within the railways whereby servicemen tear apart the order to stay put and rush to rescue the victims of Bhopal.

How Does ‘The Railway Men’ End

Relief finally comes to the people of Bhopal Junction in the show’s final episode. Imad, Iftekaar and Balwant build a makeshift train out of a goods carriage left for repair at the railyard and get everyone inside. But at the crucial moment, the train engine gives out. Just when all hope is lost, a train from a neighboring station approaches Bhopal junction. Imad gets off and couples his carriage with the new train. But then, Imdad notices another upcoming train, GM Rati’s rescue train, heading for a collision with the train stationed at Bhopal junction. With his last breath, he pulls the lever, switching its tracks and saving thousands before finally dying. Imad’s sacrifice allows Rati and his relief team to provide oxygen cylinders and gas masks to the victims. And as the new day dawns, the wind blows away the chemicals, making Bhopal a habitable place again. Meanwhile, Balwant sees that Iftekaar has fallen in a stampede. Believing he’s dead, Balwant steals the keys to the railway’s safe and robs it empty. But after hearing police officers accusing the noble Station Master of running off with the money, something stirs in him, and he returns all the money to its original place. Iftekaar is taken to a cemetery to be cremated, but moments before the ritual can start, he jerks awake drowsing in panic, urging everyone to get inside the train.

Though the night of terror was over, its repercussions would linger on for generations. The survivors are crammed inside an unhygienic, uninhabitable colony where people die from cholera, and the widows whose husbands died in the Gas Leak receive an irregular, insulting monthly pension of $3 per month. The railway employees who lost their lives during the night have a small plaque dedicated to them, while the men responsible for the accident receive no legal punishment. In the end, the show is not an easy watch; it’s tragic and depressing. But it’s a story that needed to be told, and The Railway Men tells it with the utmost sincerity, compassion and regret.

The Railway Men is available to stream on Netflix.

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