Talentime

Rating: *** (out of 4)
Director: Yasmin Ahmad

They say that some filmmakers have only 1 story to tell. Well, I hate to say this, this is the feeling I got after watching Yasmin Ahmad's latest feature film, 'Talentime'. It felt like Anthony Minghella revisiting his theme of war time drama in 'Cold Mountain', years after making the Oscar-winning 'The English Patient'.

'Talentime', like 'Sepet', again deals with interracial relationship. The feeling of deja vu is re-inforced by Harith Iskandar 'reprising' his role as 'Ah bah' of the girl's family. Again, the girl came from a liberal-minded family. Again, the family has a maid who is more like a part of the family. Adibah Noor features again, although in a different role.

With ‘Telentime’, Yasmin seems to be filling in the gap left over in ‘Sepet’. If 'Sepet' is said to be under-representing Indian characters, this time she make amends by having an interracial relationship between an Indian boy and a Malay girl. Yasmin filling in the 'muhibah' quota? Seems so.

Another criticism of 'Sepet' is that it over-simplifies matter by having 2 liberal-minded families in its story (Ironically, this is also partly the reason why 'Sepet' works so well). Here, Yasmin counters to that by having a rather 'racist' mother for the Indian boy. A darker version of 'Sepet'? Seems so.

All the above is meant more as an observation, less as a criticism. Yes, 'Talentime' is rehashing old material. But such material remains highly controversial that it deserves a retelling, with a fresh perspective. I remain a fan of Yasmin's work; 'Talentime' gracefully took a swipe against those who are 'racist' in the Malaysian Society, the re-conciliation between Hafiz and the top scorer Ka Hoe in a musical performance on stage is beautifully done, so is the scene when Mahesh's mother comes to relization that her dead nephew has deep regret over his failed relationship with a Indian-Muslim girl, due to Mahesh's mother objection. The story is told with down-to-earth sincerity as in the Taiwanese ‘Cape No. 7’. So, it is not that commercial.

And yes, the town of Ipoh remains so beautiful in Yasmin's celluloid images.

Is it better than 'Sepet'? Probably not. The characters in 'Talentime' is not as engaging as in 'Sepet'. What Yasmin is doing is probably to give the material a more weighty interpretation. She deserves credit for that.