Film Review of 3 Abdul by P. Ramlee

Tiga Abdul is a comedy film directed by and starring by P. Ramlee which also call as Malaysian silver screen icon. This movie is produced during 1964 and is one of the famous musical drama genre film in Malaysia film industry. The story of the movie is starring by 3 characters which are P. Ramlee as Abdul Wahub, Haji Mahadi as Abdul Wahab, S. Kadarisman as Abdul Wahib with the arrangement of youngest son, eldest son follow by middle son. There is antagonist character which is Sadiq Segaraga starring by Ahmand Nisfu. So this movie is about 3 brothers who are trapped into trickery set by Sadiq Segaraga who uses his 3 daughters to fleece their wealth. But not to Abdul Wahub, the youngest son, he is smart and he dreamed of his dead father who ask him to save his both brothers who trapped by Segaraga. He uses the same trick the Segaraga did to his brother and successfully revenge and save his brothers.

Although this a monochrome color movie, but it is the one of the best musical drama movie i ever watched. I admit that firstly i was sleepy when i watch the movie, maybe because i can't really listen to voice in the screening room and the subtitle was hard to see, but the second time I watched it by using my earphone and I can listen clearly what they said in the movie, I was totally attracted to it and I could not take my eyes off the screen.

Firstly, the musics in the movie were nice. Thanks to the mighty P. Ramlee as the composer of the musics. I like his unique music style, as you can listen it is actually more to the western style rather than traditional Malay style. This might shows that they have been influenced by western cultures in that era. I can't deny that P. Ramlee was a very successful songwriter, composer and singer. Especially the song <bunyi guitar> in the scene of Abdul Wahub's music shop. The rhythm of this music is so upbeat, relax and attractive tempo which attract my attention to the music. Besides, as you can listen to the music, you can recognize the style, genre and tempo are likely to western music cultures.

Next, I feel that the story-flow of the movie is quite draggy. Some of the parts do not have to be so long because it might makes the audiences feel bored. For an example, during the part when Orphan School was singing on the street to ask for charity aids for the orphan kid for school and home. But the scene was too draggy and I am like started to guess what will happen next rather than enjoy the music or understand the music. Because that particular scene was one of climax of the movie that Wahub revenges and fools the Segaraga. We will started to guess whether Wahub will donate the Segaraga's shop to them for charity. So I think there is no necessarily for scene to drag so long.

But actually, there is a lot of hidden messages in the 3 Abdul movie which reflect the political issues happened in that particular era. One of the obvious reflection of the story and the political issues is the relationship between Tunku Abdul Rahman and Abdul Razak Hussein with British government. As you can see, the Abdul Wahab and Abdul Wahib are reflecting our leaders in that era which was Abdul Rahman and Abdul Razak. The issue that the movie reflecting was about the Malaysia's economy. Even though Malaysia is a independent country, yet our main sources of our Malaysia income such as estate, rubber plantation,  oil palm plantation, tin are still belong to British people. Why is Malaysia does not fight for the ownership of this sources for the our people? This is because they have sign a agreement with the British yet they don't know the British already had a step ahead from them. This incidents is like the story of this movie when Abdul Wahab and Abdul Wahib sign the agreement with Segaraga without thinking further and understand the consequences. Besides, there is also a script which reflecting the democracy issue happened in Malaysia. For an example,
“kita bahagi harta ini secara demokrasi…. Kanda serahkan semua harta kepada adinda. Inilah demokrasi.” [ We split it in democratic way, you give me all the wealth to me, this is democracy. ]
“Demokrasi apa?” [ What kind of democracy is this? ]
“Demokirasi terpimpin…” [ Leader Democracy ]
” Demokrasi terpimpin kepala hotak kau!”
 This conversation also reflect the democracy issue happened in Malaysia where we actually live in a democracy country that has no freedom in it.

Lastly, the movie is actually quite nice. Since it is shot by using a film tape and monochrome color movie, there's sure a lot of mistake can be found within it. But if compare to the movie during the era, I can say that it is one of the best movie in that time. This is my first time watching P. Ramlee's movie and I hope there will be more to come.