I am not ashamed to confess that I am not particularly a fan of our local movie fan-fare, save for the selected few namely the legendary P. Ramlee, Afdlin Shauki, Yasmin Ahmad & some others whose names I am not really sure of.
Ordinarily, the typical Malay movie would either be a slapstick comedy genre (you watch one, you've watched them all); or some ridiculous love story - both of which will draw the generic man-in-street viewership. Thus the generalisation of "Oh, only the Malays will watch Malay movies".
Although I am not a Malay myself, I do enjoy an occassionally well-written good Malay movie. Some of my firm favourites are Seniman Bujang Lapok (& the rest of the Bujang Lapok series), Labu-Labi, Pensil (a masterpiece by M. Subash Abdullah), Mukhsin, Gubra, Sepet (all by the very talented critically acclaimed & award winning director Yasmin Ahmad), Buli, Buli Balik, Baik Punya Cilok (all by Afdlin Shauki).
I became a fan of Yasmin's work after Petronas decided to invest in the annual advertisements during the major festivals being Chinese New Year, Raya & Deepavali. We would look out for these ads that in someway would definitely hit a chord in us all - be it of joy, a tinge of sadness but always with a lesson to be learnt.
Her movies always invite a tad of controversy either with the National Censorship Board or the religious bodies. But she stays strong & continues producing these lovely inspiring movies & ads. Her latest work, Talentime is coming out in cinemas come 26th March 2009 & I am indeed looking forward to watching albeit having to go at it alone. And later this year, 'Muallaf' will hit the local cinema circuit. If others can appreciate her work, why can't we?
Remember this one amongst her many gems - the 'Tan Hong Ming's Love' ad in conjuction with the country's 50th Merdeka celebrations back in '07. Makes you just go 'awwwww'....
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