Tun Mahathir - the musical

On 28 Jan 2011 we went to Istana Budaya to catch the musical on Tun Mahathir. The musical was featured in that morning paper and I was curious to see their interpretations of his personal life and as the Prime Minister. As we settled in our seats, the hall was abuzzed and the whole audiance stood up and clapped. We were going - what? what? - what's going on? As it turned out, Tun Mahathir and wife also decided to attend the musical that night. My son explained that Tun was not able to catch  the musical before as he was taken ill in Melbourne while there for a talk. And it seemed due to that, the turn-out for the talk which was supposed to be a sell-out, was very poor - I don't envy his substitute. Even my son who was in Melbourne at the time thinking of attending changed his mind.

The musical showed his young days where he loved his books and already into business. It portrayed a reasonably level-headed, charming but shy young man and the musical ended upon his historic speech to resign from all posts during the 2003 UMNO assembly. Some scenes were quite loose and one scene made me somewhat uncomfortable as it was overboard but overall I'll give it a B+. I just felt that he could have been better portrayed. It may have been difficult to portray someone alive without having the liberty to put in creative dramatization. The commemorative book states that only after several years Tun gave his permission with a condition that all be based on true events.

But the last scene - awesome. I had tears streaming down - it was a very poignant scene between Tun and Siti Hasmah. Any hardcore critics against him would have melt. Esma Daniel playing Tun was amazing. His stance, his speech and even his feature at times were uncannily aliked. My only regret was that his bush jacket was a tad long - if it was a bit shorter it would have been perfect. Anyway back to the last scene - that was outstanding. You couldn't help but felt his anguish, his helplessness alike an old man defeated. His words of heartfelt sorrow rang out loud - "I fail". He brought development to Malaysia but the level of Bumiputera development was not up to his expectation as  reflected in the poem "Perjuangan yang belum berakhir" but he, not wanting to overstay his welcome decided it was time for him to leave.