LETTERS: Much has been said and written, and mostly assumed that films by the old Malayan film industry based in Singapore had much to offer to the viewers as they do now. Some of that is true but most of it not so, and the others are simply false.
Old Malay films produced by the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions Studios in Jalan Ampas and Cathay-Keris Studios in East Coast Road were more like British propaganda films meant to distance viewers from the realities under British colonial rule and not yet taken up by the calls for Merdeka that was being considered by a small group of politically-inclined Malayans in Kuala Lumpur.
With the many old Malay films produced and distributed throughout the country, it was easy for the British to continue their campaign to further their interests in the country, which then included Singapore. Unfortunately, not many film buffs and scholars realised that the films, although entertaining, actually distracted the masses from the angst they were supposed to experience.
There is yet another level in films that not many can talk about or deal with since it requires a lot of understanding on what the art of the cinema and the films produced and shown, not by chance but by a certain need and to get the necessary objective, unknown and unseen but felt, which was propaganda and espionage.
No wonder the only rule that was imposed by the British then, which was abided by the studios, was that there should not be any English character in the films. As anyone can see, there is hardly any major or interesting English character in any film by the old Malayan cinema.
There were a few but they're just actors sitting in the living room of a large house where a party was being held, such as in Darah Muda, which was directed by Jamil Sulong. The film featured Jins Shamsuddin, Sarimah and the other top actors of the studio. as well as Mariani, who sang the film's theme song. This, fortunately, happened when I was there.
It took me a long while to take my memories back to the time when this scene was being filmed, and even when the film was shown in the cinemas in 1963 and later on in television, I did not get the connection to what happened to me in my earlier life.
The scene looked familiar. Mariani singing the song was intriguing. It took many more years before I realised how I was actually at the set in the Shaw Brothers Studios in Jalan Ampas, Singapore, when it was being filmed.
I remembered Mariani saying to her colleagues, "Sorry terlambat", as she walked from the make-up room to the set where everybody was ready for the shoot but did not show any disdain for some delay in the filming because the star of the film was slightly late.
I checked with Mariani years later and she confirmed that she sang Darah Muda in the film with the same name, when I bumped into her and her daughter, actress Melissa Saila, at a shopping complex.
I also didn't realise that Jins Shamsuddin, Sarimah, the others and Jamil Sulong were at the filming of the scene. I had not seen too many old Malay films then, so I could not remember any of them or who they were, including Mariani herself, other than that she was acting in the film.
The first time I watched TV was at my relatives' house in Geylang, a few months after TV was introduced in Singapore on Feb 15, 1963. It was my first trip to Singapore from Melaka, where I was born and raised. My first TV experience involved watching Sea Hunt with Jeff Bridges in the starring role.
It would be a long while later in December 2011 when I returned to the Shaw Brothers' Studios only to see parts of it torn down.
MANSOR PUTEH
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times