Abang- Rahim Razali(1981)

The oldest son and heir apparent to a wealthy Kuala Lumpur family returns home after his sudden departure to London a decade ago. His family struggle with their emotions about his return while he tries to make life as normal as he possibly know how and keep his secret intact. The entry of Rahim Razali with Abang (Big Brother, 1981), signalled a change and for the first time, Malay films were more realistic in story and treatment, eschewing the superficiality and melodrama of the past. Rahim Razali echoed the same theme in Abang, relating it to Malays who had succeeded in business but then began to succumb to greed.
Overall I quite like this movie. The main character Abang Fuad was left his family, business to London for 10 years. After 10 years, he came back to his family. His family was happy yet angry. His brother was afraid of the reason why he suddenly back to his country. Mona, his sister-in-law felt restless and uncomfortable too. Abang Fuad’s brother Faizal felt surprised and worried. He worried that if Abang Fuad has changed, fear that Abang Fuad returns solely to condemn them. A thousand and one fears from Faizal. However, the family was excited when saw Abang Fuad at home.
I would like to make analysis about it by focusing on the concept of Hybrid Malaysians. We could able to see hybridity in the form of racial hybrids, language hybrids, cultural hybrids and gender hybrids. Hybridity is an association of ideas, concepts and themes that all at once reinforce and contradict each other. Hybridity can take the form of experiences or influences dependent hybrids. From the movie, we can see that it is mixture within culture, language and racial. Abang Fuad stayed at London for 10 years, he adapted the culture and language there. When he comes back we can see as righteous Malay. The family of Abang Fuad are highlighted that own business and educated. Their house is designed within western and eastern. Beside that’s, their lifestyle is also mix with western culture. When Abang Fuad was back, they had a party to welcome Abang Fuad’s returns. It is different with the Malay traditional style. They were dancing and drink alcoholic drinks in the party. Muslims are not supposed to drink alcoholic drinks. Therefore, throughout the movie we see them indulged in westernized lifestyle. Their costumes are also different with the traditional Malay clothes. We can see Dila dancing in the beginning of film with modern clothing. Culture hybridity is the influence of other cultures or western cultures, nevertheless they’re still Malays. From movie, the scene where Farid was drunk and Fuad comes in later in the night, they kinda have a fight, Fuad told him u have actually forgotten your roots, he said Farid has forgotten what his real culture and roots were. The characteristic of Farid actually it was a lifestyle and so common to him to drink and party. Although Farid is so called the rebellious son, there is still a hint of authentic culture in him, where he actually respects his parents. Abang Fuad actually portrays modern, educated, and success without losing cultural identity. Throughout the story, he proves that to be successful in life, one does not need to put down their cultural identity.
For the language hybrids, most of the language used is Malay language but English has been occasionally used in conversation. It’s clearly shows that the family is highly educated and modern. In their dialogue, they often used I instead of saya. For examples, the scene where Faisal say “a ghost from the past” during his conversation with his wife, Mona and the scene where Faisal answers “silly question” to his younger sister, Dila when she asks whether he miss Abang Fuad or not.
Racial Hybridity can find in the movie of “Abang”. In the scene of celebration party for Fuad’s return. There are different kind of people attend the party in terms of races, status and social class. In that scene, we can see Indian people, the employees and upper class people. Besides that, at the party, when Mona was clad in her baju kebaya, she was fanning herself using the Chinese fan. The fan is usually used in Chinese family culture.
Abang’ movie had been involving different kind of hybridity in bringing the story forward with more interesting and meaningful aspects. Although they are afraid of Abang Fuad’s return, but they still respect him as an elder in the family. Lastly, when Abang Fuad was dead, the family were sad and finally they know the reason of Abang Fuad left his country for 10 years.