I considered anyone who aspires to be a movie critique in Malaysia to know this movie. Made in 1960 by our beloved Tan Sri P. Ramlee, this movie is a loose adaptation of one of the tales of One Thousand and One Night tales, a famous tale from the Muslim civilization. The story is a combination of farce and burlesque comedy but I just could not shake that the social background in this story can make it to be viewed as a dystopian movie, a genre that always brings provocation and dark elements upon its viewer. I accept the chances that my thought will be fought and challenged as I have written this in deductive style and my point will focused to prove that I am right and 'blinded' me to look at it the other way round. Nevertheless, I think my thought is worth looked and dissected by everyone.
When it comes to dystopian literature, I always looked at two works, 1984 by George Orwell and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Both stories features a concept, a failed society purged by a failed political body. While dystopia always concerned about society in the future, completely different from the time frame of Ali Baba Bujang Lapok, there are elements in the story that portrayed the society as a dystopian society. I have three reasons to react to this, the first one is the social structure and cultural settings of the movie, second is the characteristics and finally the band of thieves itself.
One, when I properly looked upon the cultural background of the story, it is very much likely to believe that the thugs or the thieves are the ruler of the society. The absence of any police force in this movie is strikingly apparent. But the police force did earn a spot in this movie in the villagers descriptions. One memorable quote about the police is the conversation between the slave Marjina and the shop owner about the 'belacan'.
(loosely translated)
Marjina: Saya mahu beli belacan
Shop owner: Shh!!! Jangan cakap kuat-kuat! Nanti polis tangkap sama saya.
Marjina: Jual belacan pun kena tangkap??
Shop owner: Ya, jual ganja ada lesen. Jual candu kena lesen. Tapi jual belacan tak ada lesen. Saya smuggle dari Malaya
This conversation clearly shows the police and administration's stands in the society,what is allowed and not allowed. If we looked at it carefully, the police's stand in this movie may indicate that they only cared on their clan by allowing drugs to be sold and making their job easier but taxing the basic necessity of the people to earn their cheap living through the taxes. This is disturbingly abnormal and sinister in its sense. And the police force is not the only guilty element in this society, the whole society can take credit on its notoriety. It is also portrayed numerously in the story that most people earn their living by doing immoral jobs. We've seen big syndicate of slave trading, an old man earn his living by giving cheap advice and sleazy innuendos and also people boldly declared selling drugs on the street. This portrayal is a clear epitome of a fail society and a totally corrupt one. The only ones that does not seem to be corrupted is the non-class citizen, the slave who happily lead their lives singing song praising God (Alhamdulliah, syukur nikmat). The element of a morally failed society is a important factor of a dystopian society and in this movie, the society is indeed a morally failed society.
Secondly, I was called upon the portrayal of the characters in the movie. As the tittle suggest, the story is focused on one man, Ali Baba who amazingly characterized by Dato' Aziz Sattar. When examining his character, he comes up to me as a failed hero. There's little to be admired about him, he's a lazy bum and drives his loving wife nuts and he punches in luck in this movie through series of trickery and cheat. It seems that he also encompasses the same or worse moral failure like the thieves and the rest of the society. The only good trait that I can found out about him is he is not greedy like his brother. It's disturbingly dark of his character on the choice that he made in this movie. In the movie, he broke his promise to the thieves chief by telling Kassim Baba of the song to open the Cave of Wonder. Kassim Baba, driven by his greed, took everything that he can and alas he was caught and severely punished by the thief chief by having his body part dismembered. What disturbingly about this is what happened aftermath. Ali Baba found his brother's body scattered in the cave and then what he did? He hired a cobbler to sew him back to one piece and takes no account of rage or anger towards the thieves whom were clearly the preparator of the murder. Perhaps the absence of police force mentioned earlier might be a contributing factor to his behavior but it gets darker when he was reunited with the thief chief later and he treated him as an old buddy not as the murderer of his brother. This vividly flaw in his character depicts a stand of the society's mind. Perhaps in this society, they clearly believed in 'you reap in what you sow'. Perhaps Ali Baba sees that Kassim Baba gets what he deserved based on his failure to outwit the chief, an achievement that he makes him survive and outlived his brother. This disturbing flaw makes him a character to be revered and fun to looked at, much to owe to Dato' Aziz Sattar superb performance but nonetheless a dark character as well.
Thirdly, the organization of the thief itself. It is the only structurally functioning society in this story. They have pension, count of holiday, health department and organizational hierarchy. It shows that they are the real ruler of the town and it is strengthen in the movie that even people asked them for help. (The Sharrif Dol scene) The true epitome of their power is showed after the thief got their pay. With the monthly paid, the quickly bought new dresses and have fun at the club. And what were they dressed themselves with?? As a penghulu, lawyer, cowboy, hero and ahh...policeman of course. Those were the dresses of people that we associated to being good and able to bring justice, morality and peace to the society. It clearly portrayed their ego and reign as the real ruler of the society. It is a total mockery of the people and a sign that the town's fate is really in their hands and they are the ones that shaped it. And it was shaped in a failure manner but so successful because it seems that almost none questioned it. Isn't that a mark of a dystopian society??
Having to state all these, I can't help but thinking what is the reason for P.Ramlee to be doing this in this movie. Actually, the movie itself was banned prior to the opening and it was later in years it got its rights to be shown to public. Perhaps P.Ramlee, man that lived through different reign of power in Malaya. He survived the Japanese occupation, the British colony and 1960 was a period of threat from the communist. He had seen how much flaw in political power that influenced the society. Maybe by portraying the thieves as the ruler of the society is a gentle reminder of what could happen if 'thugs' and 'liars' were to rule the country. And the belacan scene is maybe the mockery of the Japanese occupation period that imposes tax of salt to the people. Maybe that's the message that he was trying to convey to us. Or maybe it was done in a very subtle way that he himself did not realize that these are the reflect that some of the audience get. In any case, point well delivered sir...
When it comes to dystopian literature, I always looked at two works, 1984 by George Orwell and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Both stories features a concept, a failed society purged by a failed political body. While dystopia always concerned about society in the future, completely different from the time frame of Ali Baba Bujang Lapok, there are elements in the story that portrayed the society as a dystopian society. I have three reasons to react to this, the first one is the social structure and cultural settings of the movie, second is the characteristics and finally the band of thieves itself.
One, when I properly looked upon the cultural background of the story, it is very much likely to believe that the thugs or the thieves are the ruler of the society. The absence of any police force in this movie is strikingly apparent. But the police force did earn a spot in this movie in the villagers descriptions. One memorable quote about the police is the conversation between the slave Marjina and the shop owner about the 'belacan'.
(loosely translated)
Marjina: Saya mahu beli belacan
Shop owner: Shh!!! Jangan cakap kuat-kuat! Nanti polis tangkap sama saya.
Marjina: Jual belacan pun kena tangkap??
Shop owner: Ya, jual ganja ada lesen. Jual candu kena lesen. Tapi jual belacan tak ada lesen. Saya smuggle dari Malaya
This conversation clearly shows the police and administration's stands in the society,what is allowed and not allowed. If we looked at it carefully, the police's stand in this movie may indicate that they only cared on their clan by allowing drugs to be sold and making their job easier but taxing the basic necessity of the people to earn their cheap living through the taxes. This is disturbingly abnormal and sinister in its sense. And the police force is not the only guilty element in this society, the whole society can take credit on its notoriety. It is also portrayed numerously in the story that most people earn their living by doing immoral jobs. We've seen big syndicate of slave trading, an old man earn his living by giving cheap advice and sleazy innuendos and also people boldly declared selling drugs on the street. This portrayal is a clear epitome of a fail society and a totally corrupt one. The only ones that does not seem to be corrupted is the non-class citizen, the slave who happily lead their lives singing song praising God (Alhamdulliah, syukur nikmat). The element of a morally failed society is a important factor of a dystopian society and in this movie, the society is indeed a morally failed society.
Secondly, I was called upon the portrayal of the characters in the movie. As the tittle suggest, the story is focused on one man, Ali Baba who amazingly characterized by Dato' Aziz Sattar. When examining his character, he comes up to me as a failed hero. There's little to be admired about him, he's a lazy bum and drives his loving wife nuts and he punches in luck in this movie through series of trickery and cheat. It seems that he also encompasses the same or worse moral failure like the thieves and the rest of the society. The only good trait that I can found out about him is he is not greedy like his brother. It's disturbingly dark of his character on the choice that he made in this movie. In the movie, he broke his promise to the thieves chief by telling Kassim Baba of the song to open the Cave of Wonder. Kassim Baba, driven by his greed, took everything that he can and alas he was caught and severely punished by the thief chief by having his body part dismembered. What disturbingly about this is what happened aftermath. Ali Baba found his brother's body scattered in the cave and then what he did? He hired a cobbler to sew him back to one piece and takes no account of rage or anger towards the thieves whom were clearly the preparator of the murder. Perhaps the absence of police force mentioned earlier might be a contributing factor to his behavior but it gets darker when he was reunited with the thief chief later and he treated him as an old buddy not as the murderer of his brother. This vividly flaw in his character depicts a stand of the society's mind. Perhaps in this society, they clearly believed in 'you reap in what you sow'. Perhaps Ali Baba sees that Kassim Baba gets what he deserved based on his failure to outwit the chief, an achievement that he makes him survive and outlived his brother. This disturbing flaw makes him a character to be revered and fun to looked at, much to owe to Dato' Aziz Sattar superb performance but nonetheless a dark character as well.
Thirdly, the organization of the thief itself. It is the only structurally functioning society in this story. They have pension, count of holiday, health department and organizational hierarchy. It shows that they are the real ruler of the town and it is strengthen in the movie that even people asked them for help. (The Sharrif Dol scene) The true epitome of their power is showed after the thief got their pay. With the monthly paid, the quickly bought new dresses and have fun at the club. And what were they dressed themselves with?? As a penghulu, lawyer, cowboy, hero and ahh...policeman of course. Those were the dresses of people that we associated to being good and able to bring justice, morality and peace to the society. It clearly portrayed their ego and reign as the real ruler of the society. It is a total mockery of the people and a sign that the town's fate is really in their hands and they are the ones that shaped it. And it was shaped in a failure manner but so successful because it seems that almost none questioned it. Isn't that a mark of a dystopian society??
Having to state all these, I can't help but thinking what is the reason for P.Ramlee to be doing this in this movie. Actually, the movie itself was banned prior to the opening and it was later in years it got its rights to be shown to public. Perhaps P.Ramlee, man that lived through different reign of power in Malaya. He survived the Japanese occupation, the British colony and 1960 was a period of threat from the communist. He had seen how much flaw in political power that influenced the society. Maybe by portraying the thieves as the ruler of the society is a gentle reminder of what could happen if 'thugs' and 'liars' were to rule the country. And the belacan scene is maybe the mockery of the Japanese occupation period that imposes tax of salt to the people. Maybe that's the message that he was trying to convey to us. Or maybe it was done in a very subtle way that he himself did not realize that these are the reflect that some of the audience get. In any case, point well delivered sir...
