Filmografi ‘Anak Mami’ dan Wacana Keetnikan: Sebuah Perspektif Kritis

Abstract

Filmografi pengarah A. Razak Mohaideen telah dikritik selama hampir dua dekad kerana sebahagian besarnya dianggap tidak berkualiti serta gagal mengangkat martabat filem Melayu walaupun mampu mencatat pulangan pelaburan yang besar. Sebenarnya, filmografi beliau sangat bernilai dan menarik dari aspek wacana keetnikan kerana ia menyajikan dengan konsisten sebuah representasi sosiobudaya komuniti etnik Jawi Peranakan di Malaysia secara berurutan selama satu dekad lebih. Hal ini kerana secara empirikal, perjuangan serta kegigihan A. Razak dalam mengangkat wacana keetnikan belum pernah diperlihatkan oleh sebarang pembikin filem Melayu sebelum ini. Justeru, makalah ini mempertanyakan persoalan besarnya: ‘Ada apa dengan Jawi Peranakan?’. Untuk mendalami fenomena di atas, makalah ini mengkaji wacana dari filmografi ‘Anak Mami’, iaitu, sejumlah naskah bergenre komedi bertemakan kehidupan komuniti etnik Jawi Peranakan di Pulau Pinang. Makalah ini mengemukakan perspektif batas etnik sebagai paradigma analitik yang dapat meningkatkan kefahaman dan keupayaan teoretis dalam menanggapi representasi keetnikan yang dinamik pada hari ini.

Kata kunci: ‘Anak Mami’; batas etnik; filmografi; Jawi Peranakan; filem Melayu;

The Discourse of Ethnicity in the ‘Anak Mami’ Filmography: A Critical Perspective

Abstract

The filmography of director A. Razak Mohaideen has suffered from almost two decades of chronic criticism for its apparent lack of quality and failure to raise the overall standards of Malay film despite enjoying several commercial successes. However, his filmography is arguably quite significant and rather interesting particularly as a discursive practice on the ethnicity and sustained sociocultural representation of the Jawi Peranakan ethnic community for more than a decade. As such, the persistence of A. Razak’s cinematic foray into the discourse of ethnicity is both empirically rare and unprecedented in Malay filmmaking practice. It thus begs the question: ‘What is with Jawi Peranakan?’. In order to appreciate this phenomenon, this article will attempt to explore the ‘Anak Mami’ filmography, which is a collection of romantic comedy films set in the parochial milieu of Pulau Pinang’s Jawi Peranakan society. This article seeks to deploy ethnic boundary as the analytical paradigm which may offer insightful perspective and theoreticality in negotiating with the representation of ethnicity today.

Keywords: ‘Anak Mami’; ethnic boundary; filmography; Jawi Peranakan; Malay film;