Pastinya ramai peminat filem Afdlin Shauki meletakkan satu harapan yang tinggi keatas filem arahan terbaru beliau, Papadom. Aku sendiri tidak terkecuali.Maklumlah, dari Buli, Buli Balik ke Baik Punya Cilok, setiap karya beliau pasti tidak mengecewakan. Keunikan filem-filem beliau ialah jalan cerita dan lawak yang bukan dari jalur filem malaysia kebanyakan. Pasti sahaja wujud babak pelik dan selamba yang beliau selitkan. Berani, mungkin itulah perkataan paling sesuai untuk menggambarkan karya-karya beliau.
Filem terbaru beliau, Papadom, mengisahkan seorang bapa (Saadom, lakonan Afdlin Shauki) yang 'super protective' dalam membesarkan anak perempuan (Miasarah, lakonan Liyana Jasmay) setelah kematian isterinya (Munirah, lakonan Noorkhiriah). Saadom merasakan kematian isterinya adalah akibat sikapnya yang mementingkan perniagaannya sehingga menyebabkan masa bersama keluarganya sedikit. Di ambang kematian, Munira menyuarakan hasrat terakhir, meminta Saadom menjaga Mia sebaik mungkin. Tragedi ini mengubah Saadom menjadi seorang bapa yang sangat (terlampau) komited dalam membesarkan anaknya.
Namun, cabaran sebenar Saadom bemula ketika Mia menjejak alam universiti. Semata-mata untuk memerhatikan gerak langkah anaknya, Saadom sanggup bekerja sebagai tukang kebun di universiti Mia. Semua ini Saadom lakukan atas dasar terlampau sayangkan dan terlalu mahu melindungi anak daranya.
Filem ini berlegar sekitar hubungan anak dan bapa. Ada masa diselitkan dengan kisah cinta Mia, Mat dan Hisham, dan hubungan suam Saadom dan Balqis.
Kemunculan Munira dalam sesetengah babak pelik, namun tidaklah sampai merosakkan jalan cerita. Walaupun babak boria tu aneh (dan muka menyakitkankan hati), namun aku suka.
Namun aku kecewa dengan Papadom. Lebih-lebih lagi bila dibandingkan dengan filem-filem terdahulu. Mungkin expectation aku tinggi sangat tapi aku syak ramai di kalangan peminat Afdlin sekepala dengan aku dalam hal ini. Nilai sentimental yang hendak disampaikan tidak menyentuh jiwa aku seperti bila aku menonton filem Yasmin Ahmad atau Kabir Batia. Semacam ada kekurangan. Ada masa lawak yang dibuat juga seakan hambar di samping lakonan watak-watak tambahan seperti Farid Kamil, Que Haidar yang tidak kuat.
Papadom selayaknya cuma tayangan Cerekarama, TV3, bukan panggung. Maaf.
I was invited to watch Papadom by my cousin. 'Jom tengok wayang,' she said. 'Yana belanja.'
ReplyDeleteSo I went, and was pleasantly surprised.
I stress that I am not an Afdlin fan, not his movies at least. I do find his stand-up routines rather funny, but he has an inconsistent track record with his work. From Buli to Cilok to Los-Faun, I found the stories draggy, the plots clever but convoluted, the jokes and drama clumsily interspersed. Which is why I found Papadom (PD) to be rather refreshing.
One has to look at PD as a satire to fully appreciate his jokes, which I suspect is at the heart of his work. Maybe it's always been there and it's flown over my head, but it felt particularly pronounced this time around. He mocked not only social expectations (the realism of his daughter getting 20 A's without much apparent studying at all; his time as an undercover gardener), but also local humour and speech. Take his conversation with his daughter's lecturer, where she says, 'Awak tak macam tukang kebun lain', and he asks, how many gardeners is she acquainted with really? There's a ridiculous quality to Malay wordplay that he highlights nicely.
I find he also picks at the cult of celebrity in Malaysia with that Farid Kamal character's popularity, and Wajib Tayang's intense hobo-hipster obsession with the arts pokes fun at the overly serious arts conoisseurs in Malaysia.
Again, he drags along and takes liberties with sentimentality, but his pacing is better, which maybe owes to the simplicity of the story. It wasn't excellent, but the humour looks to be catching up to the drama, and it's a marked improvement compared to his previous films. I liked it, and I recommend it.