Webbed in ‘Bhopali Gothic’: biopolitical horror and medical violence in human

This paper examines Human (2022) as a post-tragedy narrative that extends the cultural memory of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy into the realm of contemporary medical capitalism. Through its depiction of unethical drug trials, the series exposes the enduring cycles of precarity faced by marginalized communities. Drawing on Pramod K. Nayar’s conceptualization of the Bhopali Gothic, the study argues that Human reconfigures the Gothic not as a supernatural force but a medico-capitalist one where horror emerges from the continuity of systemic violence and the moral decay of institutions that claim to heal. By analysing visual and narrative elements such as surveillance, bodily regulation, and the cycles of poverty, the paper situates Human within a broader discourse on biopolitical exploitation, and corporate impunity. It contends that while the series stages moments of resistance and exposure, its ending underscores the persistence of structural inequality, where acts of rebellion are reabsorbed by the same systems they challenge. Ultimately, Human becomes a cultural text that not only memorializes the unresolved suffering of the gas tragedy’s aftermath, but also critiques the moral contradictions of a world in which care, capital, and catastrophe are fatally intertwined.