Abang(Rahim Razali 1981)

ABANG tells a story of Abang Faud who is the eldest son in the family went missing for 10 years and abandoned his fiancé, Mona who pragnent his baby. As he came back, lots of conflicts happen in the family. Mona married to his brother, Faizal and his son named Feeoz. Faud came back with the intention to lead his siblings to the right path before his death. As the story move on, his family found out the reason he left without news 10 years ago. Faud is diagnosed to have Leukemia and his health is deteriorating. After an incident, he finally gained the understanding from his family members and went to the village where he grew up. He made a generous donation to the village as a blessing and love to the society. Unfortunately, his family could not make it for the last sight before his death.

Looking at the character Abang Faud, the director did a great job in the his character development. The story start with news of Abang Faud, the mysterious eldest who has been gone for 10 years is now coming back. The family members show range of emotions with his homecoming news. Farid, the youngest son thinks that Faud returns for the family fortune. Mona worries that he is like a ghost will interfere their peaceful life. However, Dila, the youngest daughter is looking forward for his return. These emotions create a huge suspense for audience to figure out what kind of character Abang Faud is. Slowly, Rahim Razali reveals the character “Abang Faud” from antagonist to protagonist in the story. The twist is intriguing and the storyline is intensified as the director drop cue by cue for the audience to understand the suspense he left earlier.

The film “Abang” ignites an interesting hybridity discourse for audience. What do we mean by hybrid? Does it mean that Faud Din who left his motherland for 10 ten years and being modern make him a hybrid malay? Or Farid who stay within his country taking over family business make him a practicing malay? Director portrays hybridity in the story through language, culture, gender, and behavior of characters. We can see the language hybridity throughout their conversation in the film. They use mixture of English and malay words like “i” and “you” instead of “saya” and “kamu”. Also, their wearing is westernized especially Farid’s wife, Nazreen. Her clothing is very revealing for a malay woman during the 80’s.

Despite the western influence that in-built in Faud’s life, he is still carrying strong religion beliefs and malay “adat”. The story became more interesting when Faud questioning his brothers about their “adat” and roots. Though Farid always stay with the family but his character does not complement his belief as a malay. He drinks and he shows no respect to the eldest. What he concern is always his own benefits and the family fortune. He has abandoned the Malays values and religion teaching. Farid and Faud show a huge contrast in searching malay identity. These two characters imply that hybridity is not something that we see from the surface but it is beyond that.

In order to portray Din family as wealthy family, the director set a few establishing shots of the prestigious bungalow and it fully express their social status as a Dato in the country. Also, the long establishing shot of the company in the beginning of the film shows how huge the organization is. Director is good in designing the shots and scene in order to enhance the projection of storyline.

SELUBUNG

The Story portrays Mastura, a progressive, independent Malaysian woman who returns from her studies abroad and committed herself in a local association named “RESCAID”. Rescaid is voluntary organization that provides help to the children in Palestine. During Mastura’s studies in Australia, she has a good friend, E.J who decided to give up her study and marry a religious extremist, Brother Musa that practice polygamy system. Their friendship has fallen into dilemma when E.J told her that Hani, who is the first wife of Brother Musa was insane. Mastura does not believe in her and offer a help when she needed her the most. After some time, E.J’s baby was killed by Hani due to jealousy of E.J sharing the same husband with her. E.J was traumatized by the death of her baby.

Being a good friend, Mastura encourages E.J to work in Rescaid, to reach out to people who need help in Palestine. In the duty of helping the Palestine children, Mastura fall in love with Kamal, a divorcee who shares the same mission with her. However, Kamal was dishonest about his marital status in the beginning. They broke up and get back together after Kamal clarify with her the truth of his unhappy marriage. The nation-wide charity concert promoted by Mastura and the team from “RESCAID” becomes the pride of the locals. This succeeds has brought them the price of extremist’s attack. Rescaid in London was boomed. Soon enough, an extremist brought a boom to Malaysia, intended to destroy Rescaid haed quarter office. Mastura was severely injured in that incident and coma after that. A miracle has brought Mastura back to consciousness and she successfully sent the Children refugee from Palestin to Malaysia.

What do you like about the film?

What I like about the movie is It ignites a social discourse on feminism in that period of time. Woman is view as a submissive sexual figure by the society. With a strong comparison between the character Mastura and E.J, we are able to see the modern woman actually outstand the traditional one. Mastura is a strong, independent and westernized modern woman who has full control in her life. She made a choice to commit in Rescaid and she always appears as a problem solver in the movie. Despite of her westernize behavior in term of dressing and speaking, she’s still a Muslim who carry Muslim beliefs like family oriented and she believe in the “butterfly” myth. In contrary, E.J is a traditional and religious woman who put religion as her first priority. She practices polygamy and follows tightly to her religion teaching without hesitation. She give all out to Brother Musa who she believes that will bring her salvation but ended up with a death of her own son. It clearly shows that E.J is an extremist while Mastura is a practical Muslim. I believe holiness is not merely action-based but it is something we embrace inside of us. Mastura adapts to the cultural changes, still she provide good to the community. I like the message Shuhaimi Baba try to bring out through two of these contracting characters and storyline.

What do you dislike about the film?

I dislike the parallel editing style in this film. I understand that it is the popular style that editors used during that period of time. It creates suspend and triggers audience’s thinking. However, many shots and scene was not aligned properly especially between flashback scene and present scene. It creates confusion for audience to keep track of the storyline. Especially, Plus, there’re quite a number of incomplete shots. It disturbed the emotion building throughout the story.

Which part of the film you like/dislike?

Like

My favourite part of the film is the scene where Mastura was at the beach with her father. I think it’s quite an important scene to shows that Mastura is a character that still embracing Muslim believes though she look modernize from the outside. Whenever she felt lost and disperse from the outside world, she always goes back to her father and the place she grow up. This shows that she’s a person always remember who she really is.

Dislike

Also many things in the story are not well explained. For example why the intruder wants to destroy Rescaid and why Brother Musa suddenly appears to be the savior in Palestine? Aren’t he suppose to take care of E.J after his son’s death? He transform from an antagonist to a protagonist without any further explanation in the film. Other than that, some of the scene are really draggy especially the part where Hani killed E.J’s baby. In that scene, Hani is playing too much with all those cloths until we do not feel the fear and nervousness anymore. When Mastura saw the baby in the plastic bag, her facial expression shows that no mercy and fear but disgust by the baby corps. Also, there is always this Silhouette person appears in the war scene in Palestine. It creates mystery but doesn’t reveal who he/she really are. He could be Halim or Brother Musa. Many of the war scenes are repeated when Pintu was singing the song in charity concert.

Misc En Scene

Generally, I like the setting of the film especially for Hani killing E.J scene. I think the setting helps to brings out the messy and shattered feeling of the Brother Musa family. Also, Hani’s make-up imposed her strong sense of insanity. The war setting did a good job as well. Apart from there the dialogue and acting is decently done. Those familiar faces like M. Nasir and Deanna Yusoff are very much attached to audience’s heart by that time. This enhanced the story telling of the film.

Misc En Shots

Parallel editing is overused here and some transition from scene to scene is too fast. It doesn’t correlate with the storyline. Some of the angles and camera movement of the film are bit jumpy but overall the misc en shot brings out the essence of the film. It is a good attempt in the early stage of film industry in Malaysia.