Chattar Lal was the Prime Minister of Pankot. Well-spoken and outwardly demure, the Oxford educated Lal was secretly a fanatical member of the murderous Thuggee, devoted to worshiping Kali Ma with human sacrifice. Through regularly administered doses of psychotropic drugs, he subjugated Pankot's young ruler, the Maharajah Zalim Singh, thus allowing the Thuggee to operate with impunity inside Pankot—until 1935, when Indiana Jones, on a mission to recover the Sankara Stone for the people of Mayapore, appeared outside the Pankot Palace gates.
Lal greeted Jones and his friends at the Pankot Palace, and conversed with Jones on the subject of the Thuggee while at a state dinner headed by the young maharajah. Later, as Jones, Short Round, and Willie Scott discovered the Temple of Doom below Pankot Palace, Lal appeared in his Thuggee worshipping attire. After Jones was forced to drink from the Chalice of Kali, Lal assisted in the main temple. When Short Round escaped from slavery and arrived to rescue Jones, Lal fought with the liberated Jones, and undid Jones' effort to raise the cage containing the sacrifice victim, Scott. Despite wielding a large knife, Lal was defeated, and got thrown over the large wheel controlling the winch, and was seriously crushed by the wheel, which stopped, keeping Scott from being lowered in to the fiery pit. Lal's body was moved out from under the wheel, so that Jones could re-raise Scott to safety. However, while Jones and Short Round helped free Scott, Lal escaped from the temple.
Though injured in the battle, Lal escaped the palace with a good amount of stolen treasure[source?].
Behind the scenes
The character was portrayed in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom by veteran actor Roshan Seth.
In the early versions of the script, Lal attempts to attack Jones in the Thuggee cavern and is knocked into the lava pit by Jones. This fate for Lal is also included in the novelization of the film and the comic adaptation by Marvel.
In the Lego version of the game, Indy and Short Round must rescue Willie Scott and defeat Lal. However, Lal's body bursts into Lego pieces because Indy triggered the heated floors Lal was on.
Since the realease of the novelization, saying that Mola Ram was under the Black Sleep of Kali-Ma, fans say that Ram was tricked by Lal and Lal was behind the whole thing.
Appearances
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom novel
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom comic
- LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Non-canonical appearance)