Hujan Panas
Director: B. N. Rao
Year:
1953
Rating:
6.0
Country: Malaysia
Aka - Drizzle on a Hot Day
In another lifetime I once asked after watching a few YouTube musical clips
of this Malaysian film, "Is Hujan Panas the Greatest Film Ever?". Now YT
has the entire film up with sub-titles and I can confirm that it is not.
The clips though were charming - the first was a wonderful low-rent attempt
at a girl's high school of a Busby Berkeley stage number, then a lovely nightclub
performance from Siput Sarawak (I think Nona Isiah sings for her) and then
P. Ramlee doing a funny little patter song that I can't get out of my head.
Malaysia back in the 1950's had a large film industry. Run Run Shaw had been
sent there by the family to establish a studio to make films for the Malay
population and distribute foreign films for the Chinese population. They
were situated in Singapore which back then was part of Malaysia and where
this film takes place. Initially, most of the directors were of Indian descent.
One of the most important ones was B.N. Rao who began working for the Shaws
in 1953 (the film company was called Malay Film Productions) and made Hujan
Panas in that same year. Rao was also the first director to make a horror
Pontianak film. What also makes this film interesting is the song writer,
choreographer and performer, P. Ramlee. Ramlee wrote hundreds of songs for
the screen but he also became the first successful Malay director, beginning
in 1955 until his early death in 1973 at the age of 44.
Perhaps because of the Indian connection - if you look at the credits of
this film you will notice Malays, Indians and Chinese involved - the influences
of Bollywood are easy to see. The melodrama, the moral lessons and the many
songs - though on a much smaller scale than in Bollywood at the time. The
music is a mix of styles - some songs sound like Latin jazz, some Malay blues
if there is such a thing, Malay traditional and the ballads have a slow melodic
Indian beat to them. The quality of the video is quite poor but the sound
is fine. It has plenty of songs but also plenty of melodrama that is
in no hurry to get to the end (110 minutes). It kind of dawdles along and
then pours it on like a monsoon rainstorm. It won the Best Film of
the year and most of the actors won as well.
Amir (P. Ramlee) is a waiter at a nightclub and desperately in love with
the star attraction Aminah (Siput Sarawak) who treats him like yesterday's
newspaper. He is a mere waiter, she is a star and when he writes a song for
her she throws it on the ground and steps on it. Which of course only makes
him love her more. We know just how awful she is though as she brags to a
co-worker Hasnah that she is the best singer and her hair, her features and
body are tops. And that a wealthy man admires her calves. Woo-hoo. But worst
of all she smokes! Good Muslim women don't smoke. At least back then. Amir
just says corny things like "I will hurt myself with thorns if I want a beautiful
rose" to Hasnah. Who secretly loves Amir. At this point we have a good idea
where this film will end up but there is a journey that we have to take.
Amir's song makes him famous. Suddenly Aminah loves him. With his songs they
both become big stars and very wealthy. They get married. But she clearly
has something going on the side with Hassan, Amir's best friend. Always be
careful of best friends. But it is the slowest most Hamlet like affair ever
- Amir and Aminah have a boy and four years later Hassan and Aminah are still
debating whether they should get it on. The music is fine - very mellow and
stage bound - the melodrama is pretty typical Malaysian fare to induce tears.
Tears and music.
