Palm & Popcorn Sunday with Talentime... !!

It's Palm Sunday, so happy Palm Sunday to all ye who art Christians!! So today, after going back from the Palm Sunday Mass, I followed my sister and her friends to the Cathay because of their spontaneous decision to watch a movie. They decided to take a look at one last movie before the study week and concentrate fully on the exam. Actually, we were thinking of watching Shinjunku Incident, a movie starring Jackie Chan, but alas, the movie started at 11 am, so we were not in time to watch the movie. We watched a Malaysian movie instead, Talentime - which started at 11.15 am, and the movie was directed by the famous Yasmin Ahmad. As what we all can expect, only 5% of the seats are taken inside the cathay. Ha, cold feedback from us Malaysians towards Malaysian movies, huh.. But the good thing about this was that, no intervention of annoying heads from the front seat's audience.

And ahem, for those who have not watch Talentime yet, and is intending to do so, please do not read on what I am going to type because I am going to make a review about this movie, and yes, the ending is included..

Two of the three main casts in this movie, Pamela and Mahesh.

As usual, we all know that Yasmin's movie always attract controversies, so this movie was no exception (A good reason why you should watch this movie.. *wink*).. Sad but true, what she was trying to portray in this movie was the Malaysians' reality. The story revolves around the lives of Melor, Mahesh and Hafiz. Melor is a 19 year-old mixed Malay girl (Eurasian) and is played by Pamela Chong,24, (Vince's (AF1) sister, no wonder she looks familiar!!), Mahesh is a 17 year-old Indian guy played by Mahesh Jug al Kishor (just 18!!), also a newcomer in filming industry like Pamela, and Hafiz is a 16 year-old Malay student played by Shafie Naswip (who starred as Mukhsin in her previous award-winning film). One of the teachers in the high school, Adibah Noor, is producing a talent show called Talentime, to discover the talents among the high school students. So, all the students, including Melor and Hafiz were joining the Talentime audition and (surprise, surprise, rolls eyes) as we can predict, the two of them were among the chosen finalists. Ah, one thing which I like about this movie were the songs. The songs sung by Melor and Hafiz during the audition were awesomely nice, man..

I am sooo gonna download them !! Urm, after exam, of course.

Hafiz (upper pic) and Melor (lower pic) during the Talentime audition..

So, the seven finalists for the Talentime need not to worry about their transportations to the rehearsals because there were male students with motorcycles who were being assigned to fetch them to and fro from the rehearsals. And by fate, Mahesh was assigned to fetch Melor to and fro from the rehearsing place. The first time Mahesh was supposed to fetch Melor, he could not make it because his uncle was dead on the day of his supposedly wedding due to the misunderstanding with his neighbour. His uncle was going to be married the same day his uncle's neighbour was having funeral. So, I guess, they are more satisfied with funeral in both houses which took place eventually. Melor, who was extra careful about her appearance that day because she thinks that Mahesh was kinda cute (girly laugh, eheks), was fetch by the teacher of the school instead.

Mahesh and Melor on the motorcycle. This photo done no justice to Mahesh because he's actually a good looking Indian actor... ;)

Then, at first, when Mahesh started to fetch Melor, he seems to be very quiet, and Melor thought it was due to his uncle's sudden death. Then, it began to irk Melor because he did not respond to her thank yous and her greetings. She was irritated until one day when Mahesh fetched her to the rehearsal venue, he was still as quiet as ever, and he threw something like a small stone to get her attention because she forgot to take her thing from his motorcycle that day, and that was her last straw. She blurted out all her dissatisfaction towards his behaviour and said that she understands that he's having a hard time coping with his uncle's death, but please, don't be rude and please answer to her greetings. She said that he ignored her greeting like a deaf person and added to him something like "Are you deaf??" and Hafiz, who was also at the scene offered her an explanation and told her that yes, Mahesh is actually deaf and mute. Melor was really stunned. She felt sorry and shameful for her insensitivity.

Sparks of romance between Mahesh and Melor in this scene.. ;)

But from there, romantic feelings began to sparkle between the two of them. Melor began to learn how to speak in silence from Mahesh. Melor recited some poem about the moon when they were to Mahesh who could read lips. But again, it's not easy in love though the feelings are mutual. A twist of Romeo and Juliet's romance came when their love was objected by Mahesh's mother, who still hold vengeance towards Malays (I am not insensitive, but I don't know how to paraphrase a race) because of Mahesh's uncle's death.

Jaclyn Victor, who played the role as Mahesh's 20-year old elder sister with her onscreen mother.

A scene showing Hafiz and his hospitalised mother (played by Azean Irdawaty)

Hafiz, on the other hand faced a lot of obstacles of his own. His mother is suffering from brain tumour and is hospitalised. He was hated by a his own friend, because he got better results in his exam than his friend, who was a Chinese guy named Kahoe. The reason Kahoe hated him was that Kahoe's father would be really mad at Kahoe if he did not get the best result in his class. And, aiyo, I mean this Kahoe's father is really impossible what. Hafiz got 100% and Kahoe also got an A --> 97%. That result (97%) is already extremely superb. My friend, Step, said that her mom would cry in joyful tears if she ever got that kind of result. Nobody taught Kahoe's father about being grateful, I guess. Ooops, kind of far from the main point already.

A picture of Yasmin Ahmad directing Kahoe (upper photo) and Kahoe with his er hu (lower pic, which I grabbed from the blog of Yasmin Ahmad herself) in case you guys wana catch a glimpse of his look and see how good-looking he is.. ;)

Then the awaiting event came. The Talentime started at 8 pm. Melor did not have the spirit to compete because of her forbidden love tragedy with Mahesh. Hafiz, on the other hand, had to face his mother's funeral because his mother passed away the night before and was not even sure if he could make it to the competition. Melor, who was the first contestant to perform could not continue to sing after she started playing with the piano because she saw Mahesh at his usual standing place, at the corner of the hall. She got up from the stage and discussed with him about their relationship status, which I guess, is finally unforbidden after Mahesh's mother realized her mistake. Hafiz, finally could make it, and he started his performance, a singing performed with guitar-playing. Kahoe, who was also one of the contestants, who realized his unfairness towards Hafiz, came onstage and played his music instrument (er hu) along with Hafiz's guitar and made the music more awesome. At the end of the performance, the two friends hugged each other. My senior was going crazy over Kahoe cause she said Kahoe is very good looking. Well, I agreed too, but I guess I prefer Mahesh's looks cause he has a humble look compared to Kahoe's snobbish look?? (Wow, I guess I can be prejudice just by looking at looks sometimes.. Hehe)

Well, the movie ended the way it started, with the scene of the empty stage and with empty audience's seats. The winner of the competition was not stated, and I guess it was not mention purposely because the director wanted to highlight about the importance of how the contestants struggle to make it to the competition, and not the competition itself.

This is one Malaysian movie which could make me concentrate from the beginning towards the end without falling asleep or even blink my eyes. It was a refreshing and awesome experience watching this movie. And, the soundtracks are really awesome.


Pilah, High School Musical..



Talentime is better!! (*=*)

[A standing ovation to Yasmin Ahmad for her contributions towards Malaysian movies..]