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KUALA LUMPUR – In celebrating Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan’s RM90 million box office haul, director Syamsul Yusof has a message for fellow filmmakers – follow your heart and not the books as art is subjective.
In two Instagram posts celebrating its milestone achievement, he wrote that his movies are not perfect if based on “laws and rules of film-making”.
“I break all the rules just to please the Malaysian audience. In fact, who makes the laws in film-making?
“I don’t agree with it. Art is beautiful and subjective. But film-makers should follow their heart, not the book.”
He added that he believed that film-makers should take a leaf from the late P. Ramlee who followed his heart.
In another post, he said the success of Mat Kilau shows that Malay films can hold their own in Malaysia, which brings hope to local cinemas as well as artists.
The movie recently courted controversy and criticism over its portrayal of violent turbaned Sikhs.
Civil society group United Sikhs Malaysia said the Sikhs, who were British soldiers in the movie, were shown “to have laid hands on old folk, children, and helpless citizens”.
“While the controversial scenes in the movie were fictional, they are distasteful and hurt the sentiments of Sikhs,” it said in a statement.
Previously, Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah urged the Malay community and political leaders to watch Mat Kilau and see how disunity and infighting can break a nation.
Sultan Sharafuddin said he watched the film which showed how factions among the Malays could result in external influences easily controlling the people.
Mat Kilau follows the story of the famed Malay warrior who stood up against British colonists. It stars Datuk Jalaluddin Hassan, Datuk Rahim Razali, Datuk Adi Putra, Namron, and Fattah Amin, among others. – The Vibes, July 25, 2022