"Abang", by Dato’ Haji Rahim Razali in 1981

SYNOPSIS

“Abang”, the title of this film is referring to the main character, Fuad Din who is the eldest son in the family. Fuad had been missing in the past 10 years without informing his family anything about his sudden departure to other place. Unexpectedly, H.M. Din, Fuad’s father has received a telegram from London saying that Fuad is coming back to the country, Malaysia as soon as possible after his 10 years of missing. The news about Fuad’s home coming is too sudden and it has created different reactions from his family members. His parent and youngest sister are shocked with the news but, they are very happy and can’t wait to meet with Fuad. However, Farid and Faizal, Fuad’s brothers are so scared and worried about his home coming. Farid is so worried that Fuad will claims back all his properties and company he had left in the past 10 years, which Farid is managing well currently. Faizal, who has married with Mona, is worried because Mona is actually Fuad’s ex-fiancée. With the sudden left of Fuad, Faizal has decided to marry Mona because she was pregnant with Fuad’s son. When Fuad is back from London, he faced several conflicts with his family members but he solved all the problems calmly. He tries to give advice and leads them to the right path as an eldest brother. However, none of them know that Fuad actually went missing to London in the past 10 years was for medication purpose. Fuad is suffering from Leukemia which he has realized earlier. He comes back to homeland just to meet with his dearest family for the last time and enjoys everything he miss in the homeland such as childhood games “Tarik Upih”, rafting and local foods. By the time his family members regret about their mistake and realized about Fuad’s sickness, it has been too late as Fuad has died peacefully in his old village.

FILM REVIEW

“Abang” was directed by Dato’ Haji Rahim Razali in 1981, acted by himself as the main character, Fuad, and Noor Kumalasari as Mona. The genre of this film is considered as melodrama as there are some insertions of music in between the drama. Also, it has a characterized plot appeals to heighten emotions of the audiences (AMC Networks, 2011). In my opinion, I think that “Abang” is a brave and extraordinary Malay film which is quite loose from the bond of conventional Malay film. Instead of focusing on conventional thought of the Malays, this film actually shows more realistic about Malays society in the story and treatment. It relates to Malays who had succeeded in the business but then began to succumb to greed, and how this greed and status of life will affect the Malay family institution as the title of the film is “Abang”.

Malaysia is considered as a structural society where the children are taught about the importance of age and family hierarchy. Those younger always have to respect and address proper titles to their elders (Malaysia Culture, 2011). In the film, we can see that Fuad is the eldest in the family and always addressed as “Abang” by his siblings. However, with the modernization and wealth that covers around the corporate world, his brother, Farid is showed as a Malay who only respects the family hierarchy by calling Fuad as “Abang” but not in term of action. He tends to go against his eldest brother to secure his position in the company and family. As shown in the film, Farid didn’t respect Fuad as eldest brother when he secretly sold the land without Fuad’s permission. Besides, through the effective dialogue, we know that director want to emphasize about family hierarchy in this film where a scene, Farid questioned about the different between the eldest and youngest to Fuad. “Is it the younger don’t have right to correct and critic the eldest?” “Yes, you can. But with respectful and proper manner when you want to correct the eldest.” Fuad replied in the film.

On the other hand, “Abang” also revolves around the issue of Malays who have lost their own identity. However, they are comfortable with their current identity, in which their own culture and belief has been mixed with others, which leads to hybridization. Through the costume and lifestyle in the film, it shows cultural hybrid in Malay cinema. The costume and make up of those characters seem to be like more westernized. They are wearing shirt, coat, blouse, and pants instead of “sarong” and “baju kurung”. Besides, Malays in the film is shown as having more open minded and western lifestyle through alcoholic drinks and pubs. For example, Fuad always wears shirt and pant while Farid is shown through drinking vodka in the film.

Language hybrids also exist in “Abang” where there is mixture of English and Malay language in the dialogue. In the 80’s, through over-sea education, Malaysian society is getting exposure to English language. Hence, Malay cinema is slowly adapting the English language into the dialogue as what can be seen in this film. They are mixing some of the English words into a Malay dialogue. For example, “You”, “I”, “Okay” and even whole sentence of English such as “Good night my little princess” are used in the film.

Although there is hybridization in Malays cinema, but still we can’t say that Malays are losing their own identity and lost in between. As in the film, Fuad scolded Farid infidel for forgetting his own roots and beliefs. It shows that Fuad is still Malay who respects his own root and origin as a Muslim but having western cultures as in lifestyle. Fuad has been to London for 10 years and adapted over-sea western culture. It’s a need for life adaptation to be westernization. Unlike Farid, who has been covered by status and wealth has gone too far away from his Malay root and lost his identity. Fuad is comfortable with his hybrid culture but yet never lost from his roots.

Other than some criticism on the editing skills, everything is perfect on “Abang”. There is just some confusion revoked from the arrangement of the shot. We can see some repetition of shots when Fuad meets Mona at the house. It makes the audience confuse between flashback and current. But in fact, I would say that is just a mistake in editing and reused of shots as there is no flashback during that scene.

In overall, “Abang” is a great film is addressing the Malays culture in term of hybridism. It did a great job on telling the realistic of Malays culture as compared to other Malays film which are more conventional.  It also makes a clearance about hybridization in Malays cinema and also originality and identity of Malays in the society.  

REFERENCES

infidel. (2011). Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Dictionary. com website: 

       http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/infidel 

Malaysia. (2011). Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Culture of Malaysia Forum website:

      http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Malaysia.html 

Melodrama Films . (2011). Retrieved November 25, 2011, from AMC Network website: 

      http://www.filmsite.org/melodramafilms.html 

Muthalib, H. A. (2008). The Little Cinema of Malaysia. Retrieved October 25, 2011, 

      from Kinema website: http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/article.php?id=31&feature 

Sabja. (2011). Arah Filem Melayu.. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from 

      http://sabja.protajdid.com/?p=136

Wennie Sim    09UJB04854