Culturally Preconditioned

I am a little surprised how relatively quiet Gubra sneaked into our local theatres last night. There was virtually no hype surrounding the release of Yasmin Ahmad’s eagerly awaited follow-up to her mega successful Sepet. One can’t help but wonder if it’s related at all to the controversies (aka Sour Grapes Extraordinaires) surrounding her win during the last festival.

Anyway, most of us are aware that Gubra is not really a sequel to Sepet, although it does include recurring characters from the first movie. Gubra is two stories interwoven into one. One follows the familiar characters that we grew to love in Sepet, while the other follows a Bilal and his family and their interesting friendship with two prostitutes.

Orked’s story continues with her married life to an older man. The movie initially portrayed them as a loving couple, although eventually we find out everythingis not hunky dory in the land of Orked. When her father had a stroke (I think?) everyone gathered around the hospital, and Orked bumps into Jason’s older brother Alan (whose father is also warded at the same hospital). Their meeting unravelled what happened to Jason, her husband’s betrayal, and ultimately spiralled to Orked’s closure (in more than one way).

The new storyline that Yasmin introduced was of a Bilal and his loving and loyal wife. It also tells the couple’s relationship with two neighbours who works as prostitutes. Despite being pious Muslims, the couple shows no prejudice or discrimination towards their neighbours, and how they help each other in times of need.

One would think, there are no connections between the two. None of the characters from the two different stories interact actively with each other, but rather the story intertwines through the same theme of abondenment, betrayal, tolerance and love, and the parallels can be seen between the two. And interestingly enough, all the storylines in this movie goes on in pairs.

However, as much as I love Yasmin Ahmad and her works, I can’t help but think this is just a slightly more fancy, or a two-hour glorified version of Petronas advertisements. All the Yasmin trademark is there, the beautiful cinematography, the wicked script, the invited controversial scenes - and I love them all. But there just seems to be something lacking in this movie, despite the exceptional acting from Sharifah Amani.

Granted that it is not as lightweight as Sepet, Gubra was indeed filled with much humour and wit during the second half. There were more than a dozen times, I felt several scenes were dragged longer than necessary. I’m pretty sure it served a purpose in the storyline or the message of the movie, but I don’t get it. Talking about unnecessary, I really could’ve done without watching Adlin’s paunch and the inside thighs of Harith Iskandar, thank you. And without giving too many things away, I have to say, the movie ending (before the ending credits) was rather cheesy (not the kind Kak Yam was referring to).

It’s a bit ironic that Orked finally found closure in this movie, cause I’m not sure the general movie-goers will find theirs. I still feel something was missing. Did I not look hard enough? Am I trying too hard in analysing the movie when it really IS just a simple story? I don’t know. Will I recommend this movie to anyone? I can’t really say, the viewers will have to decide for themselves cause they might ’see’ something that I missed. One thing for sure though. It’s a hell lot better than the typical Malay thrash that they’ve been screening lately, that’s for sure.

Rating : B-