'Useless, disgusting movie' says Khairuddin about Anwar's biopic

SHAH ALAM - Pejuang leader Khairuddin Abu Hassan says 'Anwar: The Untold Story' movie is 'haprak' (useless) as the movie contains propaganda elements aimed to defame and tarnish the reputation of the former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Taking it to Twitter, the former Pejuang Federal Territores chief who is also Dr Mahathir's staunch supporter, described the movie as disgusting.

"I just watched the movie 'Anwar The Untold Story' which was very disgusting," he said in a Twitter post.

"The 'useless' film, which contains propaganda elements to slander and tarnish the reputation of Dr Mahathir at the same time, carries (Anwar)'s image like he is the 'Godfather'," he said.

Khairuddin also questioned why the story about the Malaysian leader was directed by an Indonesian director instead of a local director.

Because of that, Khairuddin said several odd issues arose while watching the film, which was directed by Viva Westi.

"At the same time, I felt as if I was watching an Indonesian movie because the actors tried hard to speak Malay, but the sound was awful.

"This is because 99 per cent of the actors are from Indonesia. Is there no director from Malaysia to direct this film? Who wrote the script for this movie? "Almost 95 per cent of the shooting locations are also in Indonesia," he said.

Yesterday, he posted another Twitter message saying that the film was produced to 'straighten up the wet threads' and to purify all the dirt on the protagonist's character with the sole purpose of propaganda.

"Any outsider who shows Malaysian law enforcement in a bad light is irresponsible.

"The director shows many scenes as if the police force is very cruel and inhumane towards 'Detained Persons' (OKT). This is an authentically deceptive message!" he said.

He also said the facts shown in the film are not true.

The film collected RM1 million at the box office on its opening night on Thursday.

The 108-minute movie is based on Anwar’s life between 1993 and 1998. He was played by Malaysian actor Farid Kamal, and his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah, was played by Indonesian actress Acha Septriasa.

The movie is directed by Viva Westi and has a RM10 million budget, making it the first biopic movie in the country.