Daulat (2020) Review : A Missed Opportunity
A brave Malaysian political thriller but can do so much much more. It had a strong premise; basically a story of political maneuver after a big conservative party lost a GE. Sounds familiar huh? *winks
However sadly, I think the film did not deliver very well.
The film started with the introduction of the political titans & their plans to retain their positions. One party wishes to form an alliance with an Islamist party to make a comeback, and another leader, DS Anw-ehem I mean Ali, is trying to ensure that the current PM, Tun Maha- I mean Malik, is going to hand him over the PM-ship. Now all premises were set nicely. And we're gonna see these players play their game, right? Sadly, we didn't really got that.
Surely Mahsuri, Vanidah's character played her game well, and Tony Eusoff's character, but overall it is not truly Machiavellian enough like it's being promoted & not all characters engage in the game as they should be. Tun Malik and DS Ali did not really do anything, eventhough their characters were the one highlighted in the trailer. And in a Machiavellian political thriller story, it was weird that these characters didn't do anything.
There is a subplot in the movie about a sex scandal & I think that plot dragged longer than it should be. So basically storywise, the script is not strong and can be much better considering the premise it was founded on.
Casting were great, it was just that it was too bad not everyone can do much with the given materials. What annoyed me though, was the extra casts; some of them were annoying and really miscasted.
Cinematography was really good though, I really liked it. Truly a good effort for local films.
So, Daulat was a promisingly great political thriller, but yet suffered from its execution. It was not really Machiavellianistic as it promised and can be a much better film. Still, I would not say it's bad; it was a brave local film but it can be better.
However sadly, I think the film did not deliver very well.
The film started with the introduction of the political titans & their plans to retain their positions. One party wishes to form an alliance with an Islamist party to make a comeback, and another leader, DS Anw-ehem I mean Ali, is trying to ensure that the current PM, Tun Maha- I mean Malik, is going to hand him over the PM-ship. Now all premises were set nicely. And we're gonna see these players play their game, right? Sadly, we didn't really got that.
Surely Mahsuri, Vanidah's character played her game well, and Tony Eusoff's character, but overall it is not truly Machiavellian enough like it's being promoted & not all characters engage in the game as they should be. Tun Malik and DS Ali did not really do anything, eventhough their characters were the one highlighted in the trailer. And in a Machiavellian political thriller story, it was weird that these characters didn't do anything.
There is a subplot in the movie about a sex scandal & I think that plot dragged longer than it should be. So basically storywise, the script is not strong and can be much better considering the premise it was founded on.
Casting were great, it was just that it was too bad not everyone can do much with the given materials. What annoyed me though, was the extra casts; some of them were annoying and really miscasted.
Cinematography was really good though, I really liked it. Truly a good effort for local films.
So, Daulat was a promisingly great political thriller, but yet suffered from its execution. It was not really Machiavellianistic as it promised and can be a much better film. Still, I would not say it's bad; it was a brave local film but it can be better.
5/10
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