my shoes, my journey

Gubra

Finally I watched Gubra. The highly critisized indipendent film by award winning Yasmin Ahmad. No, I didn't watch it in the cinema. Didn't buy the vcd either. I watched it on my T5. How? That's beyond the scope of this entry.

I had wanted to wait for it to be air on tv. But then the girl in the film made a remark during a live telecast. She was critisized by people of all walks of life for that remark. For her remark, she might be banned from local tv. There goes my plan to watch it on tv.

Anyway, back to Gubra. Dialog wise, it does reflex how most Malaysian speak Malay/English in their daily live. It made the film feels real. In terms of story line, the film suffers what I call accute 'sembilu kasih' syndrome 'Sembilu kasih' is a local telenovela that has too many sub-plots in it. At least all characters in the telenovela is somehow connected. Whereas in Gubra, 'Bilal circle' did not crossed path with orked's. I felt like watching 2 film at once.

Other than that, I feel that Orked's character was not fully developed. For a person who had studied in England, you would expect a certain degree of maturity. Somehow I find younger Orked in Sepet is more matured than Gubra's Orked. Another thing that I couldn't comprehend was that how a married lady could touch the bare chest of a half naked (well ok, shirtless) man she just met, when she bumped in to the guy outside a public toilet in a hospital. Even if it was just to brush off a few strand of hair. Further more, her husband is in the same building. Just plain weird.

The "Bilal's circle" faired better in my book. It felt more real. The tender loving care showed by the wife to the husband. Man to animals. One neighbour to another. And don't forget, mother to child (even if the mother is a flesh trader). With little dialog, these circle of people managed to leave more mark on the film. Even though the T5 screen is small, I could almost see (and feel) all facial and body language used.

I really wonder how the lady playing Orked could won any award. She might deserve the award, but not from playing Orked in Gubra.