Scanning the movie reviews section in the newspapers few years back, i came across a bizarre looking piece. Bizarre because it was actually singing praises for a local movie. Yes, i shared everyone's prejudice against local movies. I thought to myself, "Haiya, must be about some pontianak, hantu or some shallow love story lah!"
But then, the title caught my eye ~ Sepet (meaning slitty-chinese eyes), one of my nicknames back in secondary school. So i thought, hmmm, what do you know. Needless to say, that title pushed me to the nearest VCD shop, walking out 5 minutes later clucthing my very first orginal VCD. I told myself, any film maker who has the sense to pick up such a common yet poignant word deserves my full support. And yes, i never regretted supporting this film maker's efforts, up till her very last movie.
Her movies, Rabun, Sepet, Gubra, Mukhsin, Muallaf & Talentime have won multiple awards internationally. We Malaysians were never really fortunate enough to watch all of her shows, or full versions as they were either banned or heavily "edited".
However, nothing could stop us from believing in that beautiful picture of Malaysia and it's multicultural people Yasmeen painted for all of us. I can still hear that raw but real conversation Ah Keong had with Jason at the hospital about the Chinese perception of Malays, in Sepet. It made me proud to speak our brand of English that is heavily peppered with hokkien and other local dialects. Now, for once, Manglish no longer stood as a national embarrassment but as our national identity. It was as if Yasmeen was saying: "What is there to be ashamed of when this is a fact? Be proud of who you are!"
Yasmeed never failed to dig out the little things that make Malaysia enchanting. For example, her favorite movie sets were small towns (like Ipoh), colonial buildings (particularly shop houses with the bamboo chicks and narrow wooden satircases), kampungs and padi fields, coffee shops, mamak stalls, VCD stalls, the sarong, the plastic and metal recliner, our united passion for cantonese soap operas, bollywood offerings and thai songs, just to name but a few. She made sure we saw the beauty in these little things that so clearly define us as Malaysians.
Interacial marriages were presented as a fact rather than a peculiarity in all her works. In her latest commercial, Funeral, Yasmeen put this point across eloquently. How beautifully she spun the tale of a wife putting up with her husband's snores at night and finally coming to miss those sounds at the wake. "Beautifully imperfect" was how Mrs. Lee described her husband to her band of friends and relatives at the wake. But what was truly beatiful was the fact that Mrs. Lee was in fact, an Indian lady. Again, Yasmeen waved her magic wand and made us realise, regardless of race, we still love the same way, however imperfect that may be.
It is this ability to speak the language of the heart, and the knack of capturing it on film that will be sorely missed by all Malaysians. We have all come to expect, yes, expect, tought-provoking, inspiring, heart-warming and tear jerking Pertonas commercials during festivities. How sad it is that we now have to do without them. It is as bad as having to do without the ketupat, mandarin oranges and even muruku!
Many of us have not had the pleasure of knowing Yasmeen personally, but most of us have opened up our hearts to her messages and even acted upon them. The impact she left behind is, indeed, profound. So here's to you Yasmeen Ahmed:
May you rest in peace in the kingdom of thy maker!
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