REVIEW HASSAN MUTHALIB
Finding Enlightenment in the City Amidst the grey clouds, Hassan Muthalib finds the silver lining in Kolumpo. IMAGE: ROSS POLLACK / FLICKR!
After so many turkeys and dodos over the past few months in Malaysian cinema, what a breath of fresh air with the appearance of Kolumpo! The dodo is long gone but you can still spot some turkeys in the National Zoo. One of them shares the parameters of the Zoo’s premises but that’s another story - and it certainly merits far less consideration than Kolumpo. Kolumpo is a film made up of three multilingual short stories individually directed by Bront Palarae, Sheikh Munasar and Rozi Izma. James Wong was the associate producer under the production company, Otto Films. Set in the city of Kuala Lumpur, the film weaves together well-known themes of life, hopes, dreams as well as the quirks of Malaysians of various races. And how could you go wrong with a cast that includes some great actors like Sharifah Amani, Azad Jazmin, Ruminah Sidek, Nell Ng, Mano Maniam, Soffi Jikan, Sabri Yunus, Sherry Alhadad, Along Eyzandy, Radhi Khalid and Emely Poon, Ameerul Effendi and Rosnah Mat Aris. In the first story, Rahul, an Indian immigrant, arrives in town to discover that the company that offered him a job has gone out of business. He is helped by a local restaurant owner and so begins his life in the city as an illegal immigrant worker but then he has to face up to his inevitable fate. Meanwhile, in Setapak, Gienna is a Chinese woman in her thirties who is constantly avoiding phone calls from her mother. She finds herself helping an old senile Malay lady who cannot remember where her house is. The incident brings her
to a realisation and reconciliation with her own mother. The third story is set in Ampang. Young Hafiz meets a pretty stranger at the KLCC LRT station after they both miss the last train. For someone who has never dated anyone in his life, this is a life-defining moment, and his only hope of a glimpse of love. At the end, he realises that Cupid uses more than arrows in the performance of his task. The three stories are a collage of the human connections that bring happiness (or misery) in the big, impersonal city. Themes such as these have already been articulated in diverse ways in films such as Bukak Api (Osman Ali), Sanctuary (Ho Yuhang), Room to Let (James Lee), Aandal (Santosh Kesavan), Budak Kelantan (Wan Azli Wan Jusoh), Haru Biru (Shadan Hashim), Anak Halal (Osman Ali), Vilayattu Pasange (Vimala Perumal), …Dalam Botol (Khir Rahman), Balada Pencinta (Khir Rahman), Jalan Pintas (Nam Ron) and Rock Oo! (Mamat Khalid). While these films have been more or less pessimistic about life in postmodern Malaysia, Kolumpo offers an alternative, non-judgmental – and, surprisingly - humorous view of the problems faced by young people and their nemeses, both real and imagined. Much more interesting than the plots, I think, are the characters that have been conjured up to deliver what the filmmakers themselves feel, about their own lives and experiences in trying to make it in Kuala Lumpur over the years. The big city has mostly been depicted in films as a place of alienation, disempowerment and loss of identity. However, while hermits climb high
mountains and go into deep caves to achieve spiritual realisation, the filmmakers of Kolumpo are instead indicating that the big city could also be a place where one can find enlightenment through their experiences, both good and bad. F. Scott Fitzgerald once remarked: “Before you sit down to write, stand up and live.” The filmmakers, perhaps, regard it as a duty to impart their own experiences (having ‘lived’ thus far), as a guide to others who come to the city with stars in their eyes but then are faced with despair and disenchantment. The three stories in Kolumpo depict the city as a testing ground where one needs to hone oneself, discover that life is but a journey, and that the journey itself is one that can bring enlightenment to those who are able to realise it. For example, the first story is not really about illegal immigrants but more about the Malaysians (the syndicate boss and the pirate taxi operator) who take advantage of, and are ruthless to the immigrants while pretending to be civil and helpful. Neither is Gienna’s story about a woman who helps an old lady who is lost but of finding her own self and of her estranged relationship with her mother. The final story is not really about a boy in search of love but that God does work in mysterious ways. Looking at the subjects and styles of the film, it is easy to say that it echoes the late Yasmin Ahmad’s approaches. But I think the filmmakers of Kolumpo have actually gone beyond that. As Shuhaimi Baba has articulated in her seminal film, Layar Lara, the ghosts of yesteryear have been laid to rest (but not yet, it seems, in many other, #3 | CQ MAGAZINE | 25