'Pernikahan Dini', unique teen romantic series

'Pernikahan Dini', unique teen romantic series

By Tony Ryanto

JAKARTA (JP): A 26-episode, one-hour TV drama series entitled
Pernikahan Dini, with Saturday prime-time airing (8:30 p.m.-
9:30) by RCTI, is enjoying immense popularity. Its rating of 17,
compared with most, lying only between 7 and 9, is exceptional,
according to Rukmi, of the station's programming department.

Pernikahan has been described as unique, boasting a strong
cast, a fine storyline, making it completely different from most
teen drama-romantic-comedies. But if you look at it objectively,
it is an updated version of a Mira W. novel-based-35mm movie
called Di Balik Jendela SMP (SMP standing for Sekolah Menengah
Pertama or Junior High School), a Gramedia Film production.

In the 1980s there was a theatrical movie entitled Pernikahan
Dini, starring Mathias Muchus and Gladys Suwandi. That happens to
be the movie that has inspired the current series.

Thus the principal magnet must be the neat packaging and the
powerful come-hither appeal of its leads: singer Agnes Monika and
teen heartthrob Syahrul Gunawan, of the "Jin and Jun" series
fame, observes one weekly tabloid editor.

Monika is Dini, a junior high student who's bright, smart, but
a little out of control -- the idol of today's teenagers. Not
surprisingly, what she does often goes beyond the boundaries of
propriety. Subsequently, her parents (Rudy Salam as Duta and
Lydia Kandou as Shinta) are over-protective.

Running parallel to this is a subplot centering on Dini's
brother Dody (Attlariksyah), who is unjustly accused of raping a
woman named Dyah (Verra Rachmi), while in fact he is the one who
had come to her help shortly after the mishap.

Seeing the woman in pain, with her dress in disarray, he took
off his jacket and covered her.

When asked by her mother (Asniar, played by Yatty Surachman)
whom the culprit is, Dyah does not say anything, but the jacket
makes Dody a suspect.

Without giving viewers a moment of relief, the first few
episodes are full of shocks and surprises, leaving the viewer
wondering where the story will lead to.

Gunawan (Syahrul Gunawan) is a country boy who leaves Lembang,
West Java), for Jakarta, attending the same junior high school
Dini goes to.

The high point of tension in the story is premarital sex
between the two leads. As Syahrul Gunawan put it to The Jakarta
Post, the MBA (married by accident) story is expected to open the
eyes of ABGs (anak baru gede or teenagers) to the realities of
life.

He adds that shooting is still going on. "But due to good
planning, we are not doing things in a hurry. This means that we
will be able to concentrate on standards."

Similar to the male lead in the just-concluded drama series
Aku Ingin Pulang, the male lead is loved by two women, one a big
city girl, the other from a small town.

As could have been predicted, Gunawan and Dini will get to
know each other and get closer and closer. The girl in Lembang,
Ratna (Della Puspita) loves him, but is fiercely opposed by the
young man's mother, Bu Drajat (Meriem Bellina).

With this in mind, it is easy to comprehend why viewers are
curious to know how the story will end following the "accident".
To whom will Gunawan get married: Ratna or Dini?

The title itself is interesting because "dini" can have two
meanings. "Pernikahan Dini" could be either "Marriage of two
people that are too young to enter matrimony", or simply "Dini's
marriage".

Understandably, Pernikahan Dini could not be too closely based
on the Mira W. story, because a 26-episode series is too
extensive and voluminous for it, giving ample opportunity for the
writer to improvise, thereby enriching the positive and negative
aspects of premarital sex and how they are perceived by society
in different parts of Indonesia.

Back in 1940, Indonesians had occasion to see an unforgettable
black-and-white Italian film called Tomorrow is Too Late.
Directed by Leonide Moguy and written by Oreste Biancoli and
Alfred Machard, the film marked the debut of Pier Angeli.

She and a fellow junior high school student, while on a school
excursion, are "stranded" in a forest hut during a rainy night.
An "accident" could not be avoided. The teachers and students are
shocked, but everything has to be solved, and a solution is
ultimately found with the help of Vittorio de Sica, who plays
Prof. Sandi.

Tomorrow became all the talk among junior as well as senior
high school students in Jakarta at the time.