Who would be your Doppelgänger*?

Dadah is Death (1988, Australian)

I decided to give this film a go after discovering it in Karpal's book by Tim Donoghue. It mentioned his famous case involving 2 Australian citizens who eventually went to the gallows in Malaysia. Their case became an international sensation in the 80s as they were the first Caucasians to be hanged under drug related charges. It even created a riff in bilateral relation between nations.

I was fascinated to read that the prolific international actor, Victor Banerjee, was chosen to portray the Tiger of Jelutong a.k.a. Karpal Singh. In the cast was also Sarah Jessica Parker of 'Sex and the City' before she was famous.

The film was made to illustrate the barbaric nature of the Malaysian drug laws, the corrupt officials, the dungeon like accommodation in our prisons, the blatant abuse of prisoners by wardens, vice activities in jail and generally looking at the Malaysian way of doing thing through eyes above the uppity stiff upper lip of an Australian. Well, the way our civil service is heading these days, it seems not too far from the truth.

It is the ranting of a helpless mother trying all possible avenues to rescue an apparently doomed son. Karpal is introduced as a lawyer/cowboy who lives dangerously having frequent brush with the government and a struggling political career.

Kevin Barlow, a rolling stone, with proper career prospects, gets into a spin when his girlfriend who has a miscarriage breaks up with him. His financial situation hits the dumps when he is involved in an accident and his car is repossessed after he lapse on installments.

Tiger of Jelutong

Geoffrey Chambers, an experienced drug smuggler, ropes Barlow for an assignment in Malaysia. This starts the cascades of events that finally land both them on the wrong side of the law. At a time when drug menace was reaching dizzying heights and many Malaysian Chinese were incarcerated under the strict Malaysian Drug Laws, sending the Australians to the gallows seem to appear to be the logical thing to do.

All the king's horses and all the king's men could not reverse the court decision. The famous Melbourne  attorney, Frank Galbally, was called in to assists Karpal but only ended in bad blood. Appeals to the Goverment of Australia and the Queen proved futile. Even the Australian public showed lukewarm support to rally behind a grieving mother to save her wayward son.

V.B. as Karpal

The film depicted some nostalgic scenery of old KL.Unfortunately, some of the scenes were deceptively made to portray Penang when it was actually Singapore as evidenced by the taxi number plates! The emotions shown by the lead character, Barbara Barlow (Julie Christie) failed to depict the helplessness of her situation or garner any sympathy from my part. Even Victor Banerjee appeared too docile for the larger than life role of the Tiger!
Just wondering, which actor would you like to choose to act out your role if ever anyone thought that you were important enough to have a movie made about?

*  Doppelgänger - German; a ghostly double or counterpart of a living person.