MALAY FILMS AND TELEVISION DRAMAS
At the beginning of the 20th century traditional Malay performing arts went through various phases of development brought about by urbanization and an increasingly significant middle class audience. Classical traditions, with the exception of Nobat music, almost totally lost their support, and folk forms adjusted to the new circumstances. The new urban audiences began to look for new forms of performing arts to fulfil their wish for escapism or fantasy. Ironically, it was Bangsawan that the most powerful of all performing arts—the cinema—exploited, making its debut in 1933 with Laila Majnun.
This was to usher in, first the film industry, and later on, television dramas. Some of the influences that shaped Bangsawan and the succeeding drama forms remain important today. These came from the Middle East, India, the Southeast Asian region as well as the West. Nevertheless, culturally the early films manifested an Asian ethos and local values.
Realism entered Malay drama in the 1950s–60s, eventually finding its way into films. However, only in recent decades has the attraction for fantasy and legendary material given way to greater realism in Malay films. Experiments there were, with horror films, detective films, and in recent years science fiction, but the essential ingredients that made the films attractive to Malay audiences were to remain in place for a long time. However, recent productions have begun to demonstrate a degree of originality, inter alia, through the abandoning of formula films and nurturing of new themes. Experimental films have begun to find their own footing.
Television was introduced into the country in 1963, with colour television coming in 1978. The pioneering effort in Malay language television drama came with Tetamu Malam ('Night Guest') by Aziz Wok in 1964. There were to be many successors, and with the initiation of the 'Drama Minggu Ini' ('This Week's Drama') slot in the early 1970s, Malay TV drama for the first time began to be taken seriously. The range of offerings expanded, as did the themes, centred around social events, nation building, integration, and upon moral instruction. The greatest impact, however, was to come in 1984 with the development of privatized television, marked by technical sophistication, contemporary themes, and concepts that developed from imitation of the best Western productions.
Despite impressive technical and artistic developments in cinema and television drama, however, the problem of censorship continues to inhibit serious film making. Television dramas and films remain highly constrained, and compared with its counterpart in neighbouring countries, the Malaysian film industry has a long way to go before it can be taken seriously.
