sepi

i missed watching teong hin's APA KATA HATI, really knocked my head very hard for that as i'd been procrastinating for the longest time as my mind was on P.Ramlee - last thursday when noren, ida, chedd and i finally got together, we found out "apa kata hati" had closed the day before. dang...

we were already so geared up to watch a movie, we went ahead and watched a movie anyway, noren chose "Made Of Honour" - good choice! i SO heart patrick dempsey... never mind that it was like a male version of My Best Friend's Wedding cos Dempsey is dem-sex-ay! *palpitations* phew. (now what movie is this about again? oh...)

was invited to Alternate Studio's premiere of Sepi last night, that would make it 2 movie nights in a row. i must say it exceeded my expectations in many ways.

for a start, i loved afdlin's portrayal of Adam the chef who specializes in making wedding cakes. he made what wd have been rather clunky dialogue very, very comfortable and natural. i laughed so, so much.

loved Nasha as the andartu Suzie - so unexpected of nasha and she did amazingly well, i couldn't tell she was just acting, she played ditsy so well. whod've thought she'd be cut out for comedy like that man.

pacai's music score was fun and featured many beautiful songs (ok including my all-time favorite, anuar zain's "mungkin", so that's cheating a bit i guess) but sometimes it felt as though the songs and the score were a bit overwhelming at times. still, i think it's refreshing to have ppl like pacai in the business to give the others a run for their money.

tony yusoff put on a very commendable performance as Sufi, and he managed to overcome the rather uncomfortably clunky dialogue by having less words to say and more acting instead. funny how you can tell the "real" actors who have been stage-exposed and trained vs the "pop" stars especially when they're laid out next to each other like that.

the story had 3 parts to it, "adam", "sufi" and "imaan". the "imaan" section, to me was the weak link of what would have been an otherwise completely enjoyable movie. was contrived in parts, sometimes i felt it tried too much to be an "arthouse" film, trying to be poetic and theatrical and all. no harm done really, when the actors can pull it off successfully. the actress who played imaan, baizura kahar, might need a few more lessons in serious acting, maybe try her hand at seriously reading poetry aloud, before attempting such a role. another thing that really distracts me in a film that really annoys me, is when an actor wears a wig that LOOKS like a wig. in LOVE, kabir's previous movie, i didn't mind and couldn't tell that acha was wearing a wig, and it turns out later that her character wore a wig to hide her falling hair and not just for vanity. wait a minute if imaan wore the wig for vanity she was ill advised man.. someone shoot the hairstylist. quick. i was ready to be a little moved by the scene of her in a coma in hospital but kept being distracted by that silly wig that was off centre too for some reason, sigh. enuf said about imaan and the wig.

some beautifully executed bits of acting throughout the film though. i found the afdlin - vanidah scenes to be most enjoyable, and found myself smiling, laughing and tearing here and there. i liked eja as marya most when she played makcik marya who came back to look for sufi at their usual rendezvous spot but found out he had died. didnt like her character as the young marya vey much though.

in conclusion, i think it's worth a watch for sure. the film was held together by time-tested actors who proved they are dependable and can deliver the goods. the younger actors will have to pay their dues just as the ejas and nashas and tiara jacquelinas of the world did, i guess, and come back in another 5 years. minus the wigs.