Sangkala 9/10

Sangkala 9/10, Musical Theater presented by Abang-None Jakarta community.

I didn't expect much of this musical, since all casts are not stage performers, theatrical wise.
The script however inspired by Batavia's history. It goes back to 1740, when VOC played Hitler to Chinese immigrants in Batavia. They eliminate Chinese civilians in Batavia, just because they crowd the population at that time.
In this musical, insert a love story between native Indonesian (pribumi betawi) and a Chinese girl.

Script wise, it's very intriguing.
It's very unfortunate that Abang-None were cast for this promising story.

Dancing or Theatrical performance, as said earlier, is not a mere dancing for TV shows or concerts.
The energy is different and at the same time showing the character's emotion.

On top of that, the pronunciation has to be strong and clear.

I can feel the energy of lead casts in Sangkala 9/10. This, however, was not enough.
I was very disturbed by their vocals, then how could I enjoy the performance?

As expected, the "successful" entertainer from Abang-None are the most interesting characters on this musical. These casts are Indra bekti and Iwet ramadhan. They are entertainer as profession, therefore, it's a given that they showing off talent of attracting audience's attention.

Other than these two, there is a sand artist to illustrate the story on big screen. This dude, Fauzan, is excellent. A one man show and musical instruments would do the trick, rather than Sangkala's entire casts.

All in all, Sangkala 9/10...
is entertaining show, but not theatrical entertaining.

For a musical, it doesn't have strong dance and vocal.
For a theater performance, entertaining would be overrated.

It's another musical snob episode.

The Mirror Never Lies

So, my Saturday is full of cinematique arts today.

I was escaping home and there I was at TIM with 5 hours to kill before the main event - Sangkala 9/10 Musical Theater. Of which I'll comment on next post.

To kill this 5 idle hours, I drove around Gambir, Thamrin and Sarinah. Just because, I couldn't find my way back to TIM after withdrawing some cash on ATM nearby. Long story short, I was lost.

That killed about an hour idle time.

Enough time for this movie I'm about to watch at TIM XXI - The Mirror Never Lies.
The hype of this movie isn't extravagant. All I know that the movie was taken at Wakatobi. Small islands between Sulawesi and Papua? Correct me if i'm wrong, since I'm more often than not is geographically incorrect.

I had no expectation of this movie.
There I went inside the cinema.

To my surprise, the beginning movie showed the sponsors. It was from PEMDA (state government) and WWF. A collaboration I might never see again to produce Indonesian movie! My expectation just rose.

The introduction of movie sounds to be a very deep storyline. It started with a little girl holds a mirror hanging onto her neck - a memorable token from his fisherman dad, who's lost at sea. This story is about her. Her mom, her bestfriend Lumo, and her Jakartan guest Paman Tudo. It's not a love story of man and woman, but a girl's longing of her dad, and find closure.

In between, nature showing off its beauty on every scene. Stealing each casts' thunder to fame.

I couldn't stop to feel at awe watching Wakatobi. The underwater beauty, the ocean's magnificent color, the God's painted skies. Subhanallah, Wakatobi is really God's given heaven on earth. Untouched and pure.

Not only the place, but the people! They're very simple people, with minds encircle on family and fishing. You know the expensive resort out in Mediterranean, where guest cottages are built above clear green ocean? Wakatobi people live on top of those clear green ocean too! On their simple wooden houses and it doesn't cost thousands of $$$.

Just 2 comments on overall movie,
1. What happened to paman tudo? Since no ending is given to him, I began to wonder what's the purpose of his character?
2. I STRONGLY DISAGREE about leaving (or even the idea of dropping) the mirror into the sea. Showing it on big screen means we can trash anything into the sea! It doesn't really give positive message to audience. I understood the message behind it all, but storyline aside, the mirror could ruin the corals. We def don't want that to happen!

Mirror aside, I reckon we should have this movie to become part of Visit Indonesia campaign. That is, if Indonesian cultural department has any consideration to spread Indonesian tourism equally.

This movie is definitely a must see.
Very refreshing view to Jakartans' daily mess.

go go go get your tickets now!