I just completed watching Daulat, and to be precisely honest, I thought it was refreshing.
The movie, said to be fictional, would score brownie points with Malaysians in particular.
It stars two people I know and have met, Tony Eusoff and Jasmine Suraya Chin. Both are Sarawakians, and I personally thought they did a fine job in Daulat. Tony in particular, was really good.
Vanida Imran also played her role to perfection, but I am not here to talk about how the actors did in Daulat. Rather, I’m here to talk about the movie by itself.
WHY IS DAULAT REFRESHING?
Either way, Daulat is probably Malaysia’s first ever political movie. If it isn’t, well, it’s the first I’ve seen.
It was easy to relate to the movie plot, and I was busy trying to match each characters with Malaysian politicians at the very start of the movie.
To be honest, despite warning that the movie was pure fiction, it wasn’t that hard to match the characters with current politicians as they movie progressed. – While they don’t quite look similar to any politician, there seems to be some sort of similarities when I did the matching, be it coincidental.
That makes the movie so much closer to real life for Malaysians, and easier to relate with.
It tells of how decisions are made away from the public eye, and how strategies are planned in the political world. It later explains how these strategies are put to action to gain political power and win votes.
I thought it is the closest thing to what is happening in Malaysia, and in politics in general. Note however, this movie was made in 2019, before the March 2020 collapse of Pakatan Harapan, so I think maybe some politicians took some pointers from the movie script.
Malaysia rarely produces a movie which is so close to reality, and Daulat manages to do that brilliantly.
The fact I found myself rather disappointed the movie seemed to have been rushed to reach its climax proved that this movie is worth the time, and should have been made into a two hour movie, at least.
…and then there’s the ending. The twist at the end was simply brilliant. I did not see that coming and it was just mind-blowing to say the least. – Sounds aptly like the Malaysian political scene, right?
VERDICT
Wikipedia wrote that Daulat was released on iflix today because there were worries about censorship.
I believe their concerns were justified considering there were foul languages, a sex scene and similarities between the characters and Malaysia’s politicians and leaders.
I think the former two could be excused, but the politicians would probably not like how they are portrayed in the movie, although it’s indirect or as they say ‘coincidental’.
Regardless, I enjoyed the movie and found myself wanting more. Like I said, I felt more could be explored within the movie as I felt it was rather rushed.
That said, I am recommending this movie to everyone into politics and I hope this marks the start to better movies from Malaysia.
FYI, Daulat can be watched for free on iflix.
