Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Lights on. The stage is set. This is my first Yasmin Ahmad movie after learning a bit of what film is really about. Way back then I have dubbed her movies as being ‘biasa’ and abit ‘childish’. But I have learn a little bit on how to ‘read between frames’ and to see if there is anything hidden there. A subtext.
And this one is brimful with it! I'm not sure if I am just imagining stuff and simply making things up but here goes.
An English school that looks old and abandoned is organizing a talentime to find the most talented student. It is headed by a Malay teacher. The contestants are Kahoe, Hafiz and Melur while Mahesh is mute ended up with the role to fetching the contestants.
The film then goes into telling the stories and struggle of each of their family.
How does this film is not be speaking about the state of country?
The empty and abandoned school saying enough about our state of education, together with the mellow tune of the Negaraku.
The corrupt and cheating Malay teacher who farts and ask for favours from the Chinese teacher all the time. Also, he cheated in the lucky draw to be in the juries.
Also saying about the special place of the Malays is when Hafiz got a perfect 100 mark in his exam by just rolling his dice! Kahoe who studied so hard got a 97 mark but still got a slap on the face from his father!
It is a take on the two different sceneries for two different races in this country. But it is how your upbringing will eventually make a person you are, and Kahoe will be a hard worker all his life, eventhough his father is a rich man. A lesson that nothing comes easy in life.
Luckily for Hafiz, he didnt grow up to be a farting and cheating Malay teacher, but a responsible man in the end. He learnt about it after the lost of his father and having the responsibility of taking care of his ill mother.
His mother, played by Azean Irdawaty, who could also be representing the Motherland and how she is. And Hafiz being a responsible children of the land, taking care of her and trying to heal her in the end, by accepting Kahoe’s presence with his Erhu in performing the tunes together.
It is saying that we have stop fighting and live together in this land through all hardship. Syncing our tunes although playing different instruments, each of us faces the same challenges everyday.
The archetype play also is simple, yet very strong.
Teachers, mothers, father, sisters and brothers. Schoolmates and maid.
Apart from letting the story flow easily to us with familiar faces, Yasmin Ahmad uses archetype to tell abit about the historical background which resulted in the current multiracial setup in this country. Harith Iskandar’s mother can be Mother England looking over what she has left behind after the Independence.
As sick as the Motherland is, Cikgu Adibah played by Adibah Noor is sort of like the mother who heals. As she tries to educate and handpick the next generation. She also resist the temptation of the farting and corrupted Malay teacher!
How deep this exploration of relationship between human and races in this film by Yasmin Ahmad is just amazing. I havent even started with the relationship between Mahesh and Melur yet. Apart from a typical interracial love story, it says alot about how it is a result of history the English occupation and the migration of the Indian workforce into Malaya. It has become the hot melting pot of sort. Yet the one in power wants to label us as one instead of just be, human.
Melur’s grandma is pure English. His mother is Malay. So what is Melur?
Mei Ling is Chinese muslim, why changing her name is a must? Does God judge you by your name and not your doings?
In the Koran, God said He “...created us differently for us to know each other...” What will we discover when we finally know each other? That we are all the same. Rejoice in our differences.
Melur and Mahesh relationship is the merging of two different social hierarchies. Mahesh is from a poor Indian family living in the quaters and Melur is from a mixed marriage between an English man and a Malay woman. But true love is blind.
And this is where Yasmin Ahmad brilliance playing with visuals. In a scene where they are sitting together on a bench, professing in each others love, the camera zoomed out showing heavenly image of a group of babies playing around them. It must've meant that it is the kind of generation they will produce. Pure and free of any kind of labels. As pure as newborns.
The hints couldn’t be anymore obvious. In the previous scene to that, Melur’s maid Mei Ling and her English grandmother talked about her and Mahesh going for the ‘romen’ in a hotel. And the scene after the bench scene shows a wedding dress shop.
Despite the still strict rules of arranged marriage for Mahesh, it is finally revealed that his uncle who passed away also was forced into arranged marriage. The scene where he ponders like a dead man and got covered with white sari could mean arranged marriage maybe beautiful on the outside. But he is dead on the inside. Just like when he discover his true love passed away.
And in that email to Mahesh’s mother, his uncle (which has just died) tries to save Mahesh from the same fate. He is reminding Mahesh mother from his grave, and revealing to the viewers that she herself went against arranged marriage. Mahesh and her younger sister Bhavani, which she said “...is like two lamps in my life...” is the product of that.
At the end of the movie both Mahesh and Melur goes down a dark staircase towards uncertainty. The scene where both of them sleep on the floor with their fingers barely touching each other, akin to Michealangelo’s The Creation of Adam. This I think says alot of their future parenthood and relationship survival.
For one, Mahesh has got to convert to Islam. But in a conversation between Bhavani and her mother, she reminded her that her own brother is an Indian Muslim and it is not that bad. Similar in ‘Budak Kelantan’, the ending has the couple climbing up the stairs and they have a scene where they lie on the floor upside down. The same shown for the couple in ‘Spinning Gasing’. Not a good sign. But for Mahesh and Melur theres more positives than negatives. And how Yasmin Ahmad put it all together that all of these interracial stories on the stage. The stage doesn't only show the talents doing their stuff, but also their life stories.
The interracial issues brought forward by Yasmin Ahmad here is where the country is at in 2009, and getting in 2021, we are still at the same spot, (if not worse, with racial political agendas spewing the media on daily basis). And she has done it in the most colorful way, as a good filmaker does. Show, don’t tell.
The stage is a stage of life. The whole movie is a like play happening on it. The camera view is from the audience pov on the stage looking down. It is our stage where the play involves all of us.
Like Pak Hassan Abd. Muthalib said “Films are all about ourselves. When you are watching a movie, can you see yourself among the characters?”
Our life. Our land. Its a story about us.
It is a tale in a time. In a place called Malaysia..
Lights off.
Talentime is currently available on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/81354213
