Teh Tarik with Dr. Anuar Nor Arai

Two weeks ago, I had a teh tarik chat with Dr. Anuar Nor Arai and I was estatic that we got to be able to just chit chat about films. We used to do this quite often a few years back but the weight of my job and my family have restricted me quite a bit but I always try to find that little spark of opportunity to meet up with Dr.

One can be quite intimidated with Dr. Anuar, as he is as straight a shooter as one can get. He is wise in his knowledge of films and philosophy and he is rightfully opinionated in a lot of matters concerning films.

Three years ago, Dr. Anuar invited me to be involved in his Istana Budaya production, RONGGENG ROKIAH. I was initially reluctant to be involved as this was to be a major national theatre production and I had never worked on a scale this big. Dr. asked me to be the assistant director and also later played the part of Jimmy Lee in the play. Imagine, playing a part which had one of the most memorable line in the play, in front of hundreds and the "what if" crops up. What if I fumble the line? I'll be laughed at by the audience and Dr. would never want to talk to me again. Oh... The play was in Bahasa Malaysia and frankly speaking, my Bahasa was and is still very rusty. I must say that I plowed through it by taking up the challenge in working with Dr. and also my fear of having hundreds of eyes prying into me. His directing method had a vague way to it but through the many rehearsals, the actors and I slowly found our way through the written text. He brought the film noir elements to the stage which he coined Noir On Stage, with shadows, silhouettes, femme fatale and lot of people smoking including yours truly and it became one of the most successful Istana Budaya productions.

We talked about everything from SEPET, BIG DURIAN, JOHN CASSAVETES, ZHANG YI MOU to AKIRA KUROSAWA. He talked about the new generation of filmmakers being more daring and psychologically stems from their mixed parentage. I found it to be an interesting reading into the new breed of filmmakers. I will remember that Dr. once said that the Malaysian soil is not rich enough for great films to be produced yet based on the historical context as he compared Malaysia's history to China's, Europe's or Indonesia's.

A few days ago I was at Dr.'s house to collect the John Cassavetes' documentary and we had another session of dialogue. He spoke about Li Yang's Blind Shaft being very fresh and had a youthful outlook in its approach. He is working on a screenplay at the moment and also holds a position at UITM.

As for me, I'm glad to see Dr. Anuar to be busy again, doing what he loves most and hoping that he will be given the chance to direct again, whatever the medium is: film, stage or video. I'm also hoping to have many more teh tarik sessions with him.