Sappy patriot

THE British knew that their time was up. They were ready to call it a day and leave Malaya as a sovereign independent nation. But the looming Communist threat creeping through the thick jungle capillaries was too dangerous to be ignored.

In the middle of this, love blossoms between young soldier Yahya (played by Ashraf Muslim), and his childhood friend from his kampung, Sapura (Raja Farah).

But wait, she is betrothed to a village brute, Zulkifli (Mahmud Ali Basha). Broken hearted, Yahya returns to his barracks for one final showdown with the Commies.

In the overly-simplistic Patriot: The Musical, the play tries to grapple with the elements of patriotism, the unending fight for the glory of the nation, with a dash of romance to lighten the plot.

Maybe it was intended but the play, which was staged as part of the Hari Pahlawan celebration, ended as a sappy love story with the war for independence as mere backdrop.

There was very little character development in both the leads. Yahya was reduced to a stereotypical all round good guy with no faults, except for the fact that he is a penniless soldier.

Sapura was one-dimensional as the coy and coquettish damsel.

The singing was excellent although it did appear to be lip-synched. The songs were a combination of old 50s jive tunes while modern ballads were sung for love scenes.

The dances were impressive although some of the scenes were over the top with dancers togged in white flowy dresses for a New Age lyrical number, despite the play being set at a time when the Japanese had just surrendered to the British on Malayan soil.

Relationships and friendships with folks from other races were superficial with a token stereotypical fat Indian man, who (surprise surprise) sells milk, and a ditzy Chinese girl thrown in, just possibly to make the play more “muhibbah”. Instead, these “multi-racial” scenes made me squirm in my seat for the absurd character portrayals.

The slideshow after the stageplay was absolutely ridiculous. The slideshow was a salutation to honour lauded heroes who fought for the country but it looked like it was done as a school assignment with Power Point. Do we really need the pictures and text to randomly zoom in or swivel across the screen just to capture the audience’s attention?

But there were a few highlights to the otherwise longest two hours of my life.

The character of the village slut, Som (Zila Bakarin) was delightful. She had the big hair, big boobs and catty disposition down to the tee.

Smitten with the Gaston-like Zul who only had eyes for Sapura, she captivated the audience with her witty one-liners and that mesmerising slink across the stage.

The play was obviously big production with mega-sized props moving in and out of the stage smoothly as the scenes shift from the kampung, to the army barracks, to the jungle war zone effortlessly.

Patriot could have been great if less emphasis was given on Yahya and Sapura’s pathetic lamentations over their broken heart and possibly more on what it meant to be truly a patriot.

After all, to honour the brave men and women who fought hard for our country’s freedom, don’t we owe them more than a feeble run-of-the-mill boy-meets-girl story?



* Last day to catch Patriot: The Musical at Istana Budaya at 8.30pm. Tickets are RM20, RM30, RM50 and RM150. Call 03-40248715 or 03-40265558.