"The movies we love and admire are to some extent a function of who we are when we see them." - Mary Schmich

Saya rasa kelakar betul bila orang Melayu tak suka tonton filem Melayu semata-mata kerana “Well, I don’t watch Malay movies. They suck.” Seorang rakan pejabat tidak suka filem Papadom yang menang Filem Terbaik di Festival Filem itu. Saya tanya kenapa, sebab saya suka stimulating debates, tak kisahlah tentang apa. I was expecting some flaws of the movie from his point of view, tapi dia jawab, “Sebab tak sukalah cerita Melayu.” Kah kah. How’s that for double standard?

Kalau orang tak tonton filem Melayu di wayang sebab mahu tunggu tayangan percuma di TV ketika raya tahun depan, itu boleh diterimalah. Atau tak mahu tonton filem komedi slapstik professor UiTM itu atau filem Shamsul-I’m-so-cool-Yusof di wayang, juga boleh diterima, jika alasannya, “not worth my money.” Tapi kalau tak tonton kesemua filem Melayu, di wayang mahupun di mana-mana, simply because “I don’t like Malay movies”, sorry to say, itu satu sikap yang sungguh prejudis. Yikes. Rasa nak terkeluar muntah hijau.

And for the record, I love love love Papadom! The movie goes to prove bahawa tak perlu jalan cerita abstrak berseni whatsoever untuk hasilkan filem yang bagus. Premisnya cukup mudah tentang father-daughter relationship. Simple but heartfelt! I cried and laughed out loud and cried and laughed some more through out the movie. The movie evokes all sorts of emotion-lah in me; saya menangis tahap berlinang-linang dan ketawa tahap berdekah-dekah. Ngeh!


The movie bagged 5 awards at the recent FFM. It just dawned to me that Afdhlin is a really good actor! It’s no surprise-lah dia menang the Best Actor award; he sometimes reminds me of the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee. And Best Actress Liyana Jasmay’s potrayal as Miasara was simply adorable. But I especially liked Que Haidar as the nerdy classmate, Mat. Too cute!

Rasa rindulah pada Bapa saya selepas menonton Papadom. Tapi Bapa saya tidak pernah overprotective. He once told me, “Bapak tak tahulah apa Yanti & adik buat kat luar sana. Bapak rasa Bapak dah ajar cukup-cukup, Bapak percaya sajalah anak-anak Bapak. Kalau rasa nak buat benda-benda tak elok, ingat-ingatlah kat ibu bapak.” A simple man, my father is. I hope he is every bit proud of whom I have become today.

Oh please be warned that Papadom may not be your cup of tea if you prefer Senario/Apek kind of comedy. Heheh. Oh and it definitely will not be your cup of tea if you masuk wayang dengan mentality ‘Malay movies suck.’ But Papadom is my cawan teh dalam setiap aspek. Saya rasa ia filem Melayu yang paling saya gemari untuk tahun ini.

All in all, I think Papadom is Afdhlin Shauki’s best work to date. Kudos!