MAHSURI... the Theatre

"So now you know the story of Mahsuri. The story took place in Pulau Langkawi, and it's a true story. In Langkawi, there is Makam Mahsuri (Mahsuri's Memorial), Telaga Mahsuri (Mahsuri's Well). We can visit these places when we go on vacation to Langkawi, ok"

That was a part of a conversation I managed to overhear, between a mother and her 10 year old daughter, as I made my way up the steps to exit the theatre.

The play, directed by Fauziah Nawi includes the cast of Vanidah Imran as the leading roles of Mahsuri. It tells the legendary story of the island of Langkawi. Mahsuri, the island's beauty, is the daughter of the villagers Pak Mayah and Cik Alang. Her elegance and beauty captured the heart of Wan Yahya (Datuk Pekerma Jaya), the Sultan's ambassador to Langkawi, and proposed her for his brother, Wan Darus despite the objection from his wife, Wan Mahura.

Wan Mahura was jealous of the attention given by the people of Langkawi towards Mahsuri, who was then pregnant with the child of Wan Darus. A call by the Sultan of Kedah to defend the state from the attack of Siam, was the perfect opportunity for Wan Mahura to devise a scheme to rid of Mahsuri. The selection of Wan Darus to lead the troops from Langkawi, tore the heart of the father-to-be, between leaving his heavily pregnant wife, ad his loyalty towards the state. With a heavy heart, the young lovers seperated, leaving Mahsuri in the care of her parents and Deramang, a lone traveller who settled in Langkawi and a good friend of Wan Darus.

A silent trickery was played; Mahsuri's parents were called to the house of Wan Yahya, leaving Deramang alone to care for Mahsuri. The golden opportunity was seized by Wan Mahura, accusing Mahsuri of committing adultery in the absence of her husband. Deramang was defeated and killed whilst defending his and Mahsuri's honour. Taken to Datuk Pekerma Jaya, Mahsuri was sentenced to death for her 'crime'. As she was pregnant, she was imprisoned and her sentence was to be carried out after she has delivered. A baby boy was born, and named Wan Hakim.

Pleas from her parents and villagers of her innocence were ignored and thrown aside. Alas, on the day of the sentence, the 'keris' used to kill her could not penetrate her body. After several attempts, it was Mahsuri who suggested to used her father's inherited 'keris'.

As the legend goes, the 'keris' penetrated her body, and white blood bled out of her body. Her curse, was the Langkawi will suffer from tragedy and grievousness for 7 long generations.

The Legend of Mahsuri is a story of an innocent being accused and judged without a fair trial. The white blood symbolises her innocence and purity, and her bravery in proving it. Whether you want to belive in the story or not, the invasion of Siam to Langkawi was believed to be based on her curse, as well as several other occurrences which happened to the island.

The whole history of Langkawi, including the its most famous legend are available at Makam Mahsuri, Langkawi.

The play is currently running in Istana Budaya Kuala Lumpur, from 24-30 April 2009. Tickets are priced at RM30, RM50, RM70 and RM100. For further information and ticket reservations, visit : http://www.istanabudaya.gov.my


My Review...

For those who already know the story of Mahsuri, the play was quite predictable. So, I would focus more on the choreography. For me, as it is my first time in Istana Budaya, I was satisfied with the props and technicalities. The part when the lovers were to be seperated almost brought tears to my eyes, and how the separation between the two scenes of Wan Darus after the victory against Siam, and of Mahsuri being in prison was remarkable. The dances and songs were believable and beautiful. I congratulate the members of Artistana Istana Budaya, the artistes, the crew and of course the director, Fauziah Nawi, for a brilliant and lively performance. In the midst of cultural balancing of the country, the play has shown the beauty of the Malay gracefulness and politeness through this play.

Movie Review (26 Nov 2008)

The Reading Room

Ok, this week’s movie review is from the title The Reading Room. The movie starts off with a funeral. Sad? Not really. First, let me introduce the character. Mr. Williams, a retired successful businessman became a widower as his wife passed away. A wonderful wife she was, she left a video message for her husband, with a lovely message of happiness but most importantly, an idea on how to use their vast collection of books to good use. They had a property in their old neighbourhood, and she suggested using the place and turning it into a place where the community can come in and read without paying, just like a library. She gave him a tryout period of 3 months, plus he could live up his dream of becoming a teacher.

With nothing else to do, as he sold his family frame making company to a bunch of shareholders, no children to take care of, he has got nothing to lose. So, transferring the books from his to the occupied lot, an optimistic Mr. William sets out to fulfil his wife’s wishes of opening the little place. One week passed by and no turn out. It’s not that there wasn’t anybody around, oh, there were people. There is a basketball area right in front of the lot, but nobody walked into his place. As he observe his new ‘neighbours’, some kids were fighting over a can of soda. Now, this is a hard neighbourhood, where a can of soda would be shared among several children. Suddenly, the light bulb above his head turned on, and up comes the Free Soda sign. Running down the street, three boys pass the sign and paused. Contemplating on who should go in first, one boy made a bold move and went in to ask if the sign was ‘real’. Getting the nod they needed, they became a regular at the Room. Vanessa, a girl who would later be his shop assistant, came in and suggests that he should have some variety of magazines, specifically with the juicy gossips. This is not really the type of reading materials that, as you can tell from the collection, Mr. William is used to but he gave it a shot.

A new person with somehow a good intention is normally not that welcomed into the society he is trying to blend into by making an impact. This is obviously in the case of Mr. William. First, the ‘Reverend’ from the local church, who looked more like a Mafia head to me with all his bodyguards, came and gave a ‘visit’. Acting ‘on behalf of the community’, he was just checking out his new neighbour, with a stern yet subtle warning on how new comers come in and bring hope then leave when all everyone were giving their trust. It’s not an uncommon theory, especially regarding those ‘rich people’ who think that their money, sympathy and ‘kind gestures’ can make a sudden difference, and when a new opportunity arises, they just leave. And in a community who has seen it all, it’s no wonder that people usually respond badly to these ‘gestures’. But on the other hand, the Reverend did make a suggestion, as it was a ‘Black’ cum ‘Asian’ cum ‘Hispanic’ neighbourhood, Mr. William might want to include literatures that interest these parties, not just the common classics. Realising his lack of knowledge in the field, Mr. William went off to the local college to obtain information regarding literatures on the genre and came back with a whole new set of books.

As problems of getting people to come to his little corner was not enough, his was also burgled where his computer that he has set up in the area of the lot was stolen and he was also forced to ‘part’ with his car at gunpoint.

Things did not all go bad. A sweet little girl came into his ‘room’ one day and asked him if he could teach her to read. Curious, he asked why, and she explained that her mother may be giving an overdose of medication to her younger brother but as neither she nor her mother could read, she is not able to help in this situation. Her name was Majori and throughout the movie, you can see her reading skills started to improve, and she even started to teach her younger brother.

There is also a flip turn in the story of his stolen computer. As it turned out, the police caught the perpetrator and requested for Mr. William to identify his stolen goods. He in turn ask if he may see the boy, then went on to interrogate him on his motive of stealing the item, what price did he get for it (which was only 50 dollars, and thought that it wasn’t worth the effort), and agreed to drop the charges if the thief, Javier, agreed to work for him as his security officer. A young man brought up in this area, with a hard life background and no understanding of the future took this deal not too seriously, as several incident arises when he did not show up for work. Given the ultimatum either to continue working or to go on life without ever being able to make something out of himself, Javier walked out of Mr. William. Later on, he backed Mr. William about standing on his own two feet and had an argument with his cousin.

Meanwhile, a teacher had been following the progress made by Majori, and brought in Jared, a boy who excels in Maths, but has a lot of trouble reading. Going back to the local college to find help, Mr. William met with a young lady, Vanessa, who is pursuing a career in education. When mentioned the neighbourhood Oaklane, the girl backed out, saying that she had been studying hard to make something out of herself so that she can have the money to get away from that neighbourhood. Trying his luck with other ‘educators’, his search failed at the mention of the word ‘Oaklane’. Not giving up, Mr. William was determined to teach Jared himself, only to be saved by none other than Vanessa who showed up after being touched by the sign he posted on the college notice board ‘if you help this child, then you would be fulfilling you true self as an educator’.

The place did not only provide a learning sanctuary for the children, it was also used by a 17 year old boy, Darryl to study for his SAT exam. When he first walked in, The Reading Room did not have books to cater his need, but Mr. William told him to come back the next day and he will provide the needed resources. One week later, Darryl showed up, and had been doing exercises in the place throughout the movie, watching everything that went by. Darryl has problems of his own, where although he is smart, like Jared he also has a reading problem. He reads to slow, so naturally he was disappointed that he did not do well in the SAT. When the 'gang' found out the case, they went round to the principal's office to ask for Darryl to have a retake exam, without time limits... (yes, they have that in the States).. Anyway, the school was quite unwilling to help and they had to be persuaded heavily by Mr. William. Shows how much a school seem to do ' all they really can' to help a student, don't they? They seem to have given up on the students, arguing that the student did their expected results - and i thought Malaysian schooling system was bad -

Anyway, Darryl did manage to do well in the retake exam even qualified himself for a scholarship.

Well, I would recommend you watch this movie if you have another opportunity to do so. I won't give away anything more, as I, as usual have put off completing this entry for almost a week... What to do la with this girl.. malas semacam, kan.... susah tol...

The BIG Two-Four!!!

Well, what do you know... I'm 24 today.. WOW!!! That's like almost quarter of a century, a two-plus decade... Man, I'm OLD!

For those who do not know a bit of fact, I share my birthday with a few other people, well technically a few hundred thousand... but you can't expect me to know ALL of them do you? Anyway, those who I do KNOW are two of my cousins and Lucas Grabeel, you know from HSM (High School Musical), the Disney teen movie production that went box office this summer of 2008. If you are wondering, yes, we were born on the same date, in the same year. So technically, we kinda celebrate this day together too.. although he is in the States and has still more than 8 hours to go to reach this very date.. but whose counting.

Right now, it's 02:35 in the morning, my eyelids are slowly closing the available gap for light and images to enter my eyes and reflect on my retina before it can be deciphered by my brain to be intepreted as a visual information and to get my reaction to the intepreted situation. And these processes all take about few micro, no.. nano seconds?! Those who are more verse in this field can enlighten me on this fact please... Coz my brain is slowly decresing its working rate.

Well, I don't feel that sleepy yet, though all my bodily functions are shutting down slowly one by one.. So I have to make this quick... I spent the first hour of my 24th year of life watching one of my favourite programs, Criminal Minds. Why do I like this show so much? I do not have the exact answer, but I would guess it has something to do with being able to read or see through the criminal and victim's mind at the time the crime was committed, trying to figure out their next move, what causes the that particular person to commit an act. It's the whole psychology, victimology and behavioural thingies that gets me going. The only thing about these shows are that most of them are solved within the hour long episode, whereas the actual time taken is far longer, maybe even years. This fact is totally true, even stated in the book written by an FBI agent who was one of the pioneers in initiating the agency under the FBI in studying these criminal acts from the psychological perspective. His name is John Douglas, and the book is really good. It gave me some if not a lot of insight on how to read a situation and convey it into much important information in order to solve a case.

Now, I may not be a police officer (though I did dream to become one, but my height limits me from certain professions), it's interest me a lot to know what goes on in other people's minds, though I do not understand my own that much either... I guess it's an assurance for me to know that I'm not weird to be doing crazy stuff, because there are others like me... HEHEHE...

Marhaban Ya Ramadhan... n MERDEKA!!

Marhaban Ya Ramadhan.. As the dawn of the ninth month in the Islamic calender begins, Muslims around the world come together to celebrate this glorious month. The month of love, charity, peace and glory... A month the signifies the power of being a Muslim and a servant the The All Mighty. A month of forgiveness and full of bless... I would like to wish all Muslims a happy and blessed Ramadhan... May all our 'ibadah and prayers be blessed by Allah....

On a lighter note... Yesterday was my nation's Independence Day... Although on a much smaller budget (due to budget cut in the govt sector, hehe..), the celebration was not "small" at all.. What I mean is, it was a success... Malaysians of all ages and races flocked to Dataran Merdeka to witness the country's 51st birthday.... And was I there..? Nope, just watched it through the teley... hehe... Well, I was still in my dorm room, and was on my way back home that day, after settling things in my room.... Anyway, I have promised my mom to accompany her to watch "Ismail, the last days" at the KLPac in Sentul. It was a theatre musical about the second deputy prime minister, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman.

Dubbed as "The Reluctant Politician", the musical, as in the title, focused on his last days... The person who came out of retirement to help the hen prime minister, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman after the terrible massacre of May 13th. A person who sacrificed his family, his life, his health, for his love for his nation. A person who later became the second deputy prime minister, but died (of cancer) as the acting prime minister. Truly a true leader who is reluctant to give up when his fellow countrymen needed him the most.

And throughout the whole musical, I was wondering if these type of people still exist today. People who would literally risk their lives for the nation, their family for others, their wealth and time for nothing in return, but the peace of ones countrymen. Are we truly still a nation who we regularly claim to be proud of, usually during the "Independence" month? Are we still really together to fight for the well being of the state, or just a show of respect during the parade? Are we still UNITED?

Nowadays, politics have turned into somewhat a popularity contest, a speech full of lies, full of promises that will be broken the minute they are in power, of accusations without anywhere near the truth. "Conspiracies" and "Cover-Ups" within the political circle. What is there left for us to believe? Who are we to believe?

Anyway, back to the musical. Its was a great success, I mean, even I was touched. To think a man of such heights also had his problems with the missus. And to top it all of, he was dying of cancer when he took the post of deputy. Talk about passion... The cast were great, lovely numbers and lyrics were amazing. The actors put on a spectacular performance, which made me want to go back for more...

(U know, i could write more, but since i had procrastinated writing this piece for two whole days, I have forgotten what is there that I wanted to include - So typical of me - )

Thus, I would like to end this by congratulating the performers and crew of "Ismail, the last days" for a stunning production.

A bless full Ramadhan to our Muslim countrymen, and enjoy the bazaar... We do so love our food.. At least that is one thing that we all agree on...

And a Happy 51st Merdeka to Malaysia... May we always live in peace and harmony, regardless of our backgrounds, as One Nation, a Proud Nation, of Brotherhood, as One Single Family Under The Same Roof...

My First Entry...

Assalamualaikum...

Hehe.. I started this site quite a while back, but have not entered any postings, as I am just that 'lazy'... hehe... anyway, I'm right now in my room, alone as my other roommates have left for the weekends... It's odd, coz normally i'm the one who would be gone for the weekends, but i have decided to stay back for this weekend to study... (my midterm is just round the corner.. wish me luck)..

Anyway, to make this weekend uninteresting.. my friends have decided to all go off to other places, thus leaving me here alone, bored to my wits end... Off all the weekends, they had to make plans on the weekend that I've decided to stay in the hostel... Well, looking at the bright side, it gives me the opportunity to concentrate on my 'studies'... huh... Yep, it's gonna be a LOOOONNGG WEEKEND...