A soft-hearted, if sometimes amusing, elegy about love in all forms, be it unrequited, unconditional or burgeoning, as several students navigate a school ‘Talentime’ show and family problems in Yasmin Ahmad’s sincerely-made final feature.
Review #2,982
Dir. Yasmin Ahmad
2009 | Malaysia | Drama | 120min | 1.85:1 | Malay, Tamil, English & Cantonese
PG (passed clean)
Cast: Muhesh Jugal Kishor, Pamela Chong, Ida Nerina, Adibah Noor, Tan Mei Ling
Plot: A talent search competition has matched two hearts – that of Melur, a Malay-mixed girl and an Indian male student, Mahesh.
Awards: Official Selection (Busan)
International Sales: Grand Brilliance
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Talentime Competition; Family Problems; Youth Romance
Narrative Style: Straightforward
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Mainstream
Viewed: Netflix
Spoilers: No
Yasmin Ahmad’s final feature, Talentime, feels like a culmination of the themes explored in her small but enviable body of work. Some, however, might use that same argument to accuse her of recycling ideas. Whichever way you feel about the film, it is difficult to say that it was insincerely made.
Despite some wonky plot beats and being at least one tighter edit away from a more engaging pacing, Talentime should still mildly entertain as a melodramatic piece of Malaysian cinema.
A school is preparing its students for a ‘Talentime’ show. As auditions are arranged to find the best performers, we see some of these selected participants having to contend with not just preparing for the big night, but also navigating family problems.
One of them, Hafiz, a guitarist, realises the days of his ailing, hospitalised mother are numbered. The other, Melur, a Malay mixed-race pianist, finds herself attracted to an Indian boy, who is hearing-impaired and mute.
“I can teach you how to speak in silence.”
Sprinkled with the extremes of emotions, be it sadness or joy, anger or envy, Talentime somewhat mitigates all of these with its brand of light, amusing, and occasionally ‘cheeky’ humour.
Melur’s family, in particular, is boisterous and gives the film some energy. Most of the time, though, Talentime feels more like a soft-hearted elegy about love in all forms, be it unrequited, unconditional or burgeoning.
Ahmad’s unassuming filmmaking style doesn’t quite render everything cinematic; in fact, I would argue that the film feels more like a telemovie, though that isn’t detrimental to its modest aims of telling an earnest story about the pleasures of human connection and the need to support one another, regardless of race, language or religion.
Grade: B
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 