Can a SA Indian who becomes white get away with bloody murder?
Such forms the basis of Kevin Singh's third movie.
In The Chameleon Kevin plays Dr Sunil Singh a good doctor gone bad.
All in the name of revenge.
AWB-styled thugs killed his wife Eileen just because she was black.
Karmically, on the same night the brazen attack took place, our good doctor just happens to be shagging a patient. An aging Caucasian Sandton hooker. (Well that's what she looked like in the quick cuts which juxtaposed their sexcapade with the violent attack on Mrs Singh).
All in all, Kevin has succeeded in making a movie that sends the middle finger to the Broken Promises and its ilk out there.
Not to say such were awful movies. But Kevin took the serious drama route as opposed to a hammy comedy as his genre of choice.
The Chameleon was inspired by Barend Strydom racist killings.
The Strydom incident, twenty two years ago on November 15, 1988, was, arguably, a turning point for South Africa.
Fifteen innocent people were gunned down by Strydom, the leader of the Wit Wolve, on that tragic day.The world fixed its gaze on apartheid SA once more.
The leader of what he called Wit Wolve (White Wolves) was sentenced to death for his crimes but set free by Nobel Laureate FW de Klerk four years later.
"The incident threw racist SA into the spotlight - once more - forcing the hand of De Klerk and his apartheid cronies to set the ball rolling and release anti-apartheid figurehead Nelson Mandela and others. Unlike Sharpeville or Soweto, where active resistance against the regime saw innocents slaughtered, the Strydom killings gave the naked racism of apartheid a face. Fifteen people were gunned down senselessly," said Kevin.
"The movie uses the Strydom incident as a catalyst for Dr Sunil who seeks revenge for the murder of his wife Eileen. While the film is not prescriptive it opens the door for discussion. The black anti-hero must go through surgery to become a white man so he can kill freely. However, like the case with Stockholm Syndrome, the black man begins to fall for his white enslaver - his face!"
The flick, at 100 minutes, played at The Labia, on Kloof, and at a Ster Kinelor cinema in Gauteng - both for one night each. For more news on its screening e-mail queries to goldencityvoice@gmail.com
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