Does anyone know what P stands for in P.Ramlee? It's Puteh =D And no I didn't know it either, TV Smith had to point it out to me. The mention of P.Ramlee brings me back to the days in high school when we were occasionally shown his films in the auditorium during Malay Language classes. His films, and crap like Senario. I remember feeling quite contemptuous towards contemporary Malay films of that era (late 1990s) in comparison with P.Ramlee's works.
P.Ramlee was a singer, a songwriter, an actor, a script writer and director. In other words, he was Da Man. P.Ramlee The Musical basically tells P.Ramlee's life story during the height of his career and his three (sequential) marriages. Here are some pictures, taken from TV Smith's collection.
I really like this first group singing scene, setting was in Penang, and you could feel the vibrant scene in Penang back in the days. The backdrop was nothing less than stunning, with the buildings in their prime, details like the quaint cendol seller with a cart under the tree, and people dressed retro-like. Very grand opening. That was when P.Ramlee was about to be discovered by a Singaporean film director B.S. Rajhans. Subsequently P.Ramlee went to Singapore to develop his career, and to charm all the ladies in Singapore, like below:
And this is the scene when P.Ramlee seals the deal of directing his first film, Penarik Becha. Those two are the Shaw Brothers from Hong Kong, and the lady sitting is P. Ramlee's second wife, Norizan.
The singing was almost impeccable. Group songs were great, but I always enjoy those the most anyway. Great choreography, convincing acting, seamless change of scenes. Great wardrobe of costumes, as you can see. Backdrop, wonderful. The tickets are pricey but at least you get real value for them.
The musical was conducted in Malay (would be weird otherwise), and there was this panel for subs in English. At times it was rather distracting to have to shift my eyes to and fro from the scene to the subs. Also the panel had this problem of flashing every once in a while. It's useful though, the subs, 'coz I really couldn't catch what they were saying or singing at times.
I thought that some of the music was rather... (at this point TV Smith offered "westernized") westernized, Disney-like like in Mulan (Amir whom we met in the Press Club later even said that they took "Gaston" out of Beauty and The Beast for the musical, though I did not notice that). It would be much better if they would've got some songwriter which had more style that corresponded with P.Ramlee.
The storyline was alright I guess... since this is a tribute to P.Ramlee, there wasn't much drama within except for his four romances. Skips over struggles that he must have had in his life. I thought some parts of the romances dragged a little, though I loved the last one of him and Saloma. It was so cheeky and quirky, something that I totally expected of P. Ramlee. There's one line especially which stuck to my mind, and I intend to incorporate it into my repertoire of accepting a marriage proposal in the future -
"[Insert elaborate romancing] ... Will you marry me?"
"You janji you tak akan sia-siakan I?" *Bat eyelashes*
Muahahahhaaha. I'll put it in. Just watch me.
All in all, this musical has rekindled my interest in digging up P.Ramlee's movies to watch. Here's a comprehensive list of movies that he has starred in, directed, written and provided music for. Also, here's some synopsis of his movies, all in Malay though, with posters. I found it when I was looking for a portrait of P.Ramlee, below:
P.Ramlee The Musical will be playing in Istana Budaya till 14th of June, 2008. Here's where you go to buy the tickets. As far as musicals go, this wasn't half bad, you can see all the effort put into it and the performance is quite topnotch. Makes for a pleasant evening out, for Father's Day, maybe?Syok sendiri disclaimer: Just so all five of you (dear readers) know, I wasn't paid to write all these. Support the local arts scene!!
