Even serial killers want to live!

The Serpent (Miniseries; 2021)
Netflix-BBC

Ever since I read about Charles Sobhraj in the papers back in, probably 1976, I was fascinated with this character. Over the years, little snippets about him used to pop up here and there. Again, my interest in him was piqued when he would repeatedly outsmart his captors and make yet another dash to temporary freedom. Earlier, in one of my old posts, I mentioned someone who had named his newborn Sabhraj, not knowing the infamous icon behind the name. Now, after so many years, the child must be a teenager; I wonder if the child is cursing his parents or revelling in the glory of his cool name, securing many equally cool friends.

And then, this miniseries also reminded me of a friend who shares almost the same name as Sobhraj's sidekick as Ajay Chowdhury. Cocooned comfortably in his own sanctuary with no mobile phones and e-mails, he can be contacted via the landline. There is a problem here. He is so hard of hearing but does not believe in getting hearing aids for himself. So calling him is out of the question. He is not in the pinkest of health either, battling cancer. With all the travelling restrictions and the rage of the pandemic, giving him a visit has to wait. In his mind, not being able to hear is not his problem; it is others'.

This 8-episode miniseries starts with his time in Bangkok in 1975 by the poolside in his apartment complex. He assumes yet another pseudonym, Alain Gautier, as he entertains friends who later become victims. He professes to be a gem dealer, but his main interest is drugging travellers, robbing them of their monies and passport and dumping off their dead bodies. At a time when forensic sciences were primitive, the exchange of information was sketchy and local resources were limited, Sobhraj (aka Hotchand Bhawnani Gurumukh Charles Sobhraj @Serpent), and his accomplices, Ajay Chowdhury and Marie-Andrée Leclerc, could literally get away with murder.

Tahar Rahim
French-Algerian actor
who acted well to fit the mould of an
 Indo-Franco-Vietnamese serial killer.

Through the storyteller's creative storytelling, the miniseries, through its unique way of moving to and fro between episodes, managed to paint a composite picture of Sobhraj's formative years, his earlier crimes and his relationship with his mother. Sobhraj is said to have operated in France, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Thailand and Hong Kong. Besides robbery and heists, he gained notoriety primarily from his systemic enticing and killing of backpacking hippies. His modus operandi is the same - befriending white tourists through charm and warmth, poisoning them, followed by taking their passports. Sobhraj and Marie would then travel, assuming the identities of their victims to avert detection.

His crime came to light through the almost maniacal investigative work of a Dutch diplomat and his wife stationed in Bangkok, Herman Knippenberg and Angela Kane, working relentlessly with a perenially under-resourced Thai police and later the Thai chapter of the Interpol.

Sobhraj and Marie's running days came to a halt in 1976 after Sobhraj's failed attempt at poisoning a group of German students in New Delhi. He was imprisoned for 12 years. Marie was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer in prison and was extradited to Quebec to spend her remaining days. In prison, Sobhraj led a cushy life bribing the jailers. He even managed to sell his life story to a publishing house. Fearing extradition to Thailand after his time in Delhi Tihar jail, he held a big party at his 10th year of prison term, drugged the prison guard, and staged a jailbreak. He was re-apprehended in Goa and had was jailed for another 10 years as he had intended because a conviction in Thailand would mean the death penalty. Using the 20-year statute of limitation in Thailand in his favour, he walked out a free man in 1997. 

Nihita Biswas - fascinated by Sobhraj's French charm!

He went back to France for a quiet life to reconnect with his first wife, daughter and his Vietnamese mother. For reasons best known to him, Sobhraj made another trip to Nepal in 2003. It was a bad mistake. A reporter identified him, wrote about him in the local papers, and the Nepali police sprang to cuff him for an old unsolved murder. He was given life imprisonment. Some say he missed being in the limelight, hence his last trip. Even in prison, he created lots of publicity. Despite the denials by the local authorities, Sobhraj lives like a Raj. In 2018, he was said to have wedded his lawyer's daughter, Nihita Biswas, a TV personality 44 years his junior.

He pops up in the news every now and then, a complaint here and an appeal to the French President there. In 2017, he underwent open-heart surgery for defective heart valves. The irony of it all coming out from the mouth of a serial murderer accused of 12 to 24 people, as quoted by the operating surgeon, Dr Raamesh Koirala, was this. When counselled on the heart valve replacement, Sobhraj is said to have said, "do whatever you think is right for me, doctor. I just want to live!”

[P.S. The whereabouts of Ajay Chowdhury is unknown. He is said to have been sent to do a gem deal in Malaysia. Unconfirmed sightings of him in Germany were made, probably untrue. He must have been killed by The Serpent.]

The reel is almost close to the real!

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You are made to think that you are free!

Easy Rider (1969)

This classic of the late 60s glorifies the counterculture spirit of that era. Even though it seem to showcase a decadent lifestyle with hedonistic desires away from the usual requirements of society like working and following the law, herein lies the philosophical outlook on life. The message is imparted via the travelogues of two hippie bikers as the they span the USA from Los Angeles to St Louis to attend Mardi Gras before they retire in style in Florida with the ill-gotten stash of cash obtain by drug trafficking big time.

The riders (Wyatt@Captain America, Peter Fonda, the producer; Billy, Dennis Hopper, the director) pick up a hitchhiker and spend a night in a commune. In the 60s, people who were disillusioned with the way the capitalistic industrial world was heading, with war and nuclear threat, decide to give it all up to live the simple life with simple desires with lots of love and hallucinogens. The riders could see that the members of the commune, even though they think they are free, they are actually having a very hard time trying to grow their own grain in a hostile environment, bad soil, bad weather without the proper tools and know how. They seem to get detachment from their troubles through the performing arts. So, they are close to nature and away from modernity but are they truly happy and free?

They continue their journey only to find themselves arrested for 'parading without a permit' when they rode through a street parade. In the lock-up, they get the good acquaintance of a drunken lawyer in the same cell, George Hanson (the most talented actor, Jack Nicholson) who got them out and followed them en route to attend the Mardi Gras. Another bashing at free American, people need to get a permit to parade in public!
Jack Nicholson's presence really livens up the whole movie after that.
They stop at a diner. Their presence in the squeaky clean town is not welcomed. The diners would not take their orders and the sheriff's men gave condescending looks on their gruffly unkempt appearances. The older townsfolk made disparaging remarks about their lifestyles and even sexual orientations. The young girls at the place are all starry eyed about them and would die to ride with them, so they say. To avert trouble, they leave. The message here is that, even though America is a free country, people are frowned upon for being different and vilified for that.

The hostility of the local men continued. They turned up at their camping site under the cloak of the darkness of the night to bash the living daylights out of the three bikers. George succumbed to his injuries.

Wyatt and Billy, obviously referring to Earp Wyatt and Billy the Kid of the Wild West, continue their journey. They symbolise the old America. Wyatt is dressed in a leather jacket emblazoned with the logo of American Eagle. Billy looks like he is draped in Indian garb, minus the headgear.

As they were riding along dreaming of their retirement in Florida, they passed by two farmers travelling in a pick up truck. Just for the heck of it, they shot both of them down! That is how the Old America was brought down. The New America and its inhabitants think they have the right formula to be free. Real freedom is a fallacy. The people is power, over time again and again, gave is the elusive idea that we are free while keeping us tight under their rein. By the way, what are we free from? Free from the evil that lurks around us? Free from the hardship of life? Free from our worldly obligations? Free from the cycle of Life? What are we free from?

NB. The film comes with an array of beautiful rock ballad from The Byrds, Steffanwolf, Bob Dylan and others. Film was shot exclusively outdoors depicting the picturesque landscape of the American wild.