CINTA - the movie

After weeks of hectic work at the office and also the weekends’ busy schedule, I finally had the chance to catch “Cinta”, the most hyped local love of the year. I was told by everyone who has watched it that it was a superb film and a must watch local film of the year. From the posters which I have seen at the cinemas, I know that the film is about 5 love stories in one film and from what I heard from friends, its how this the characters of the film interact with each other which makes it unique. I had this perception that it was your typical love story, where the guy falls in love with the woman and woo her till she finally falls in love with him and they live happily ever after. Or where they already fell in love but there are obstacles which they had to over come to make their love a success. Guess what? I was totally wrong; the film was more then just that.

At the end of the film, I was totally blown away by what I have just watched. It was nothing which I was expecting but a lot more. In a nutshell, I can say that it is the sweetest and most beautiful local film which I have watched to date. Other then Sepet, no other local Malaysian film has ever made its viewers, smile, laugh, and cry as well as making us fall in love with the characters. As the story develops between all the characters, we see that the film makers do not only want to tell a love story but also a story about life itself. In the film, love does not only mean loving but it is shown in many ways in a very deep context. Love is portrayed differently between characters such as the romance in love, caring for the person that you love, the sacrifices which we will do for the person we love, letting go of the person whom we truly love and also forgiving the one we love.

I have never watched a local film which was filled with a variety of characters. With the current standards of local films, we always have a stereotype of characters which we can only differentiate from how they dress and what they do. Fortunately for Cinta, the characters do have depth and mix with excellent acting; you can easily fall in love and feel the emotions of which the character felt. From the Alzheimer ridden teacher to the rich magazine publisher, we can easily relate to anyone of them as they feel so natural and down to earth. With only about 2 hours of show time, the film makers did a remarkable job with all characters. Kudos to Kabir Bhatia for directing this film.

There were many great scenic locations in the film which shows the various parts of Kuala Lumpur. From the heart of the busy metropolitan to its calm rural outskirts, the film crew did a marvelous job at searching for the right locations for all the scenes. In most scene locations, the film makers try to show that we are still in Kuala Lumpur by having prominent landmarks such as KLCC in the background. Some how I felt this kind of scenery became a bit repetitive and boring as it was over used.

Apart from the great set locations, the scenes itself were nothing less then beautiful. A combination of good camera angles and excellent character interactions has really set new standards for the local film industry. I dare say that Cinta will be the new benchmark for great story telling in any Malaysian film. One scene which I felt was so beautiful was when Eizlan Yusuff was on his first date with Fasha Sandra. When they reached the dinner table which was in the middle of a garden, he requested her to lift her hands up and as she did, a gazebo which was at the background suddenly lighted up and revealed an orchestra which started playing her favorite song, “Belaian Jiwa”. The audience including myself was totally surprised and was wooed away by such a romantic scene. Even though many Hollywood films has already used kind of romantic setup but it was never used in any local film and its execution itself was just flawlessly beautiful.

The dialogs and interactions between the characters are always meaningful and very touching. One dialog which I felt that it gave a very deep and thoughtful meaning to the audience was when Datuk Rahim said, “Seorang isteri bukanlah hak milik tetapi anugerah kepada insan” which is translated to “A wife is not a property but a responsibility”… or something like that. Sadly, even at this time and age, there are many men who still consider women as inferior to them and not as equals. What was said by Datuk Rahim should be a fundamental ideology for a modern and civilize person, living in today’s equal society.

Even though the film was great it does has its own flaws. In one story arc in which it tells the story of a marriage breakup between Rashidi Ishak, a successful editor for big magazine company who is married to Rita Rudaini. In their relationship, Rashidi is not only a caring and responsible husband and father but he is still passionately in love with Rita even after more then 10 years of marriage. The marriage ended up in a divorce after Rita confessed that she was seeing another man in spite of her husband’s commitment towards her and their family. Her excuse for affair …. She found her “soul mate”. After the betrayal happened, Rashidi was totally crushed but later recuperated given some time. What I felt was totally fake about this story arc, even though he and his daughter were betrayed in this relationship; all he did was to forgive Rita. I felt he was gentleman enough to do so but I do feel that his actions were unrealistic.

Another expect of the movie which I felt was annoying was the usage of the same type of camera angle. In many scenes, the camera will either zoom in, zoom our or move sideways which I felt that it was over used.

I can still write on and on about this film and spoil the fun for those reading this, but I’ll better stop here. If this film is still in the cinema, GO WATCH IT. If not, then get the DVD or VCD which should come out in the market soon. If you feel the it’s not worth the your money to watch this movie, then wait till Hari Raya and you can catch it on out local TV station. As I said it before, this film is a must watch.