What is right and wrong in 'Mencari Pelangi'<\/p>\n
By Tam Notosusanto<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): It is easy to point out where Mencari Pelangi
\n(Looking for the Rainbow) goes wrong: confusing writing, uneven
\ndirecting, awkward acting. And whether it is a musical -- like
\nthe filmmakers intended it to be -- or not is really debatable.
\nWhich makes one wonder what it is doing nabbing several awards at
\nlast December's Indonesian Television Film Festival, including
\nthe Vidia Utama Award for Best Television Film.<\/p>\n
Take another look, and you'll see that the jurors at the
\nfestival were sober when they made their pick. Mencari Pelangi is
\nreally onto something. Beneath its surface of technical bungle,
\nthe film takes the audience on a little child's existentialist
\njourney in search of his identity, liberty and life's meaning.<\/p>\n
The central character here is Danang (Irwan Arianto), a young
\nshoeshine boy who, when not cleaning the footwear of passersby at
\na railway station, finds pleasure in composing fables and tales
\nthat he tells to his customers. Everything should be fine and
\ndandy for Danang, except for one thing: no one will listen to his
\nstories.<\/p>\n
\"Nobody appreciates stories around here,\" he complains, after
\nyet another customer abandons him in the middle of his
\nstorytelling.<\/p>\n
He despairs, because storytelling seems to be his raison
\nd'etre, it's his means of escape from his dull, routine life.
\nDanang can precisely describe the daily goings-on at the railway
\nstation, which are virtual recreations of the previous days'
\noccurrences. He remembers by heart every denizen of that station:
\nthe beggar, the janitor, the fruit seller, all of them come to
\nthe station to do what they do every day.<\/p>\n
Screenwriter Rayya Makarim has created a small cosmos out of
\nthe railway station. It contains characters who meet every day
\nand have the same conversations. The fruit seller goes into a
\nbargain strife with a thrifty buyer, the civil servant has
\nsardonic chats with the blind beggar, the janitor sits near a
\nmysterious lady dressed in black, and Danang's father (Sena A.
\nUtoyo), a porter at the station, carries luggage and at the same
\ntime offers the services of his son to his customers.<\/p>\n
Danang is surrounded by this suffocating deja vu every day.
\nMuch like the Bill Murray character in the thought-provoking
\ncomedy Groundhog Day, he wants to break away. But he can't,
\nbecause his stories have to find dedicated listeners first to be
\nable to carry him out of his misery.<\/p>\n
Until he discovers what may be the solution to his yearning: a
\nnameless storyteller (Kaharuddin Syah), who comes to the station
\nand delivers magnificent, captivating tales to the passing crowd.
\nIt doesn't take long for Danang to come forward and ask the
\nstranger to teach him how to work wonders with storytelling. And
\nthe boy is showered with profound remarks such as: \"The world in
\nyour stories, it's entirely within you. Only you can make it be
\nor not be.\"<\/p>\n
Danang becomes the Jedi knight in training for the ultimate
\ncraft of storytelling, while the storyteller acts as his Obi-Wan
\nKenobi-like mentor. \"You don't pay enough attention, you only
\nthink you do,\" the storyteller advises his apprentice. \"When
\ntelling a story, you have to pay attention to the listeners
\naround you. It's to them you are telling the story. And you will
\nmake each one of them feel special.\"<\/p>\n
The film has a well-grounded concept, with the boy's quest for
\nperfection that progresses toward his eventual triumph when he
\nfinally reaches his goal. Makarim constructs her story arch well.
\nAnd she, along with Sitok Srengenge, who supplied some of the
\nstoryteller's speech, really has a way with words.<\/p>\n
But trouble comes with the world of the train station she
\ncreated, and how director Harry Dagoe Suharyadi materialized it.
\nIts population is as real as the one in Sesame Street: the porter
\nwho tap dances on the train, the civil servant who wears his
\ncivil servant's uniform every day, and so on, they don't belong
\nto the Indonesian reality. Which is fine, if the filmmakers had
\nkept it that way. But in trot Danang and his younger sister Gati
\n(Rimarsha Nugrafita), who look exactly how real-life street kids
\nare, and they disfigure the imagery that way.<\/p>\n
Yet Danang is too busy to swim with boys his age or explore
\nthe neighborhood like regular street children do. This little guy
\ndoes not know how to have fun, and for some absurd reason, he is
\nconfined to the railway station that bores him to death.<\/p>\n
This film would have worked best if the creators had not spent
\ntoo much time going in the pointless direction of building up the
\ntrain station universe, which eventually comes out half-baked.
\nInstead Mencari Pelangi should have focused on its neglected
\npotential: the relationship between the children and their
\nfather, the relationship between Danang and the storyteller, and
\nespecially the relationship between Danang and Gati, which is
\nterribly underexplored.<\/p>\n
Good acting and good casting would have helped too. Irwan
\nArianto's stoic and tormented performance is certainly not much
\nto marvel at, while Kaharudin Syah ruins his role by spitting out
\nlines he does not seem to comprehend, coming out as a hectoring
\nschoolmaster instead of a wise instructor.<\/p>\n
Of course, the audience should know that this hour-long film
\nwas made on a screenplay that was written in four days, and was
\nshot in only a week. It is a project requested by private TV
\nstation Anteve, which was looking for a musical film to air on
\nits anniversary. No decent film should come out of such a
\ninhuman, improbable production schedule, and amazingly, Mencari
\nPelangi is still a decent, if ungainly, movie.<\/p>\n
Those who missed the two times ANteve broadcast this film will
\nhave another chance. The Usmar Ismail Film Center will screen
\nMencari Pelangi, along with the four television films it defeated
\nfor the Vidia Award: Dalam Bayangan Ibu (In Mother's Shadow),
\nPenari (Dancer), Kado Istimewa (Special Gift) and Buku Catatanku
\n(My Diary), from Feb. 24 through Feb. 28.<\/p>",
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