''Tanda Putera'' (English: ''The Mark of a Prince'') is a 2013
Malaysian Malay-language historical
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...
political drama film directed by
Shuhaimi Baba. The film chronicles the relationship between
Tun Abdul Razak, who was the second Malaysian Prime Minister, and his then deputy
Tun Dr Ismail set around the time after the
1969 racial riots. The film was intended to be released in
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
n cinemas on 13 September 2012 but the release was delayed until 29 August 2013
due to some controversy regarding the portrayal of the racial riots being the plot point of the film. It is
Shuhaimi Baba's sequel film to ''
1957: Hati Malaya'' in 2007.
Plot
The film is a fiction loosely based from the race riots of 1969, when the racial tension had reached its height. The film portrays the close friendship between the second Malaysian prime minister,
Tun Abdul Razak and his deputy, Tun Dr Ismail. They were secretive about their health problems as they had the task of restoring the peace in their country following the events of 13 May 1969. Tun Razak was suffering from leukaemia and he had to keep it a secret from his family, so they both sought the services of Dr. Macpherson, who used his reading room as a secret clinic for his treatment.
Cast
*
Rusdi Ramli as
Abdul Razak Hussein
Abdul Razak bin Dato’ Hussein (; 11 March 1922 – 14 January 1976) was a Malaysian lawyer and politician who served as the second prime minister of Malaysia from 1970 until his death in 1976. He also served as the first Deputy Prime Minis ...
, Deputy Prime Minister (later Prime Minister 2nd) and husband Rahah
* Zizan Nin as
Ismail Abdul Rahman, Minister of Home Affairs later Deputy Prime Minister to Razak
* Faezah Elai as
Rahah Mohammad Noah, Abdul Razak's wife
* Linda Hashim as Norashikin Mohd Seth, Ismail's wife
* Kamarulzaman Taib as
Tunku Abdul Rahman
Tunku Abdul Rahman (8 February 19036 December 1990), commonly referred to as Tunku, was a Malaysian statesman who served as prime minister of Malaysia from 1957 to 1970. He previously served as the only chief minister of Federation of Malaya ...
, First Prime Minister and mentor Abdul Razak,Ismail
* Nazril Idrus as
Mahathir Mohamad
Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...
, a doctor and Member Parliament Kubang Pasu
* Norman Hakim as Inspector-General
Mohammed Hanif bin Omar, Inspector of General Police 4th
* Sakhee Shamsuddin as
Najib Razak
Mohammad Najib bin Abdul Razak (, ; born 23 July 1953) is a Malaysian politician who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2009 to 2018. In 2020, he was convicted of corruption in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, on ...
, Abdul Razak's son
*Bell Ngasri as Dato
Harun Idris, Menteri Besar Selangor
* Amar Baharin as
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Tengku Razaleigh bin Tengku Mohd Hamzah (Jawi alphabet, Jawi: تڠکو غزالي بن تڠکو محمد حمزة; born 13 April 1937) is a Malaysian people, Malaysian politician who served as the Dewan Rakyat, Member of Parliament (MP) for Gu ...
, Founder Petronas
* Riz Amin as
Ibrahim Ismail,high ranking officer Malaysian Armed Forces
* Azliyuszaini Mohd Noor as
Mohamed Salleh Ismael, Inspector of General Police 2nd
*
Kavita Sidhu as Kara
* Riezman Khuzaimi as Sergeant Aman
* Kuza as Maimon
* Zaefrul Nordin as Corporal Musa
* Ika Nabila as Zarah
* Zoey Rahman as Johan
* Shiqin Kamal as Zailah Ismail
* Ahya U as Zaman
* Alan Yun as Allen
* Starley Wong as Father's Allen
*
Douglas Lim as Leslie Cheah
*
Ida Nerina as Jah Steno
* Sharifah Shahirah as Headmaster
*
Chew Kin Wah as Tan Chong Chor
* Fizz Fairuz as
Arshad Ayub
Historical accuracy
Shuhaimi Baba had stated that the film is based on true historical facts and that it is not a propaganda and that the film is mainly about the friendship between Tun Razak and Tun Dr Ismail, while the 13 May incident is merely a backdrop to the film. However, Shuhaimi also mentioned that there were significant amounts of creative illustration and fictional content added in.
Reception
Critical response
Aidil Rusli writing for
The Star calls the film "an engaging experience"
despite its "niggling faults" - its approach to an episodic narrative "having to cram everything into a two-hour movie", and "less-than-believable"
CGI shots to illustrate the period the film was set in.
Umapagan Ampikaipakan, of radio station
BFM 89.9, on the review website UmaandJoe.com says that the film glorified Abdul Razak and Dr Ismail at the expense of their predecessor
Tunku Abdul Rahman
Tunku Abdul Rahman (8 February 19036 December 1990), commonly referred to as Tunku, was a Malaysian statesman who served as prime minister of Malaysia from 1957 to 1970. He previously served as the only chief minister of Federation of Malaya ...
; that it had "made Tunku look like a blithering fool. It made him look toothless.
..when you tell the story, you don’t undermine another leader. You don’t say
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
was great but
JFK
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until Assassination of John F. Kennedy, his assassination in 1963. He was the first Catholic Chur ...
was a loser.”
His co-host Johanan Sen observed on the production aspect of the film where its first half "looks like an unfinished
History Channel
History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...
special without voiceovers done or without any proper historians being interviewed.
.....a re-enactment footage arranged together without proper narrative."
Erna Mahyuni of
Malay Mail
The ''Malay Mail'' is an online news portal in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the continuation of a print paper which was first published on 1 December 1896 when Kuala Lumpur was the capital of the then new Federated Malay States, making it the ...
, in a scathing commentary of the film that was widely circulated online, also stated of its seemingly lacking of a coherent narrative; with the ensemble cast's performance having "the collective expressiveness of
IKEA
IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services.
IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...
furniture". The performance of lead actor Rusdi Ramli in particular was derided for his "unconvincing" expressions and "forced" chemistry with co-actor Zizan Nin, the latter aspect coming across as "a parody of
bromance
A bromance is a very close and non-sexual relationship between two or more men. It is an exceptionally tight, affectional, homosocial male bonding relationship exceeding that of usual friendship, and is distinguished from normal friendship by ...
".
Erni further wrote that the movie appeared to have
negationist undertones against the 1969 riots and it negatively portrayed the two statesmen protagonists "as pompous idiots who do not trust their wives".
There was also some common ground regarding how the central characters of Abdul Razak and Ismail, and their wives had been miscast by more younger actors.
Box-office
The movie failed to collect back its budget, affected by the Penang screening ban and intense competition with other international movies that were also showing in cinemas at the time such as ''
Kick-Ass 2'' and ''
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones''. In addition, another local movie that was released at about the same time titled ''KL Zombi'' surpassed it and the aforementioned international films to hit second place in opening weekend takings between 29 August and 4 September alone, with only ''
Elysium
Elysium (), otherwise known as the Elysian Fields (, ''Ēlýsion pedíon''), Elysian Plains or Elysian Realm, is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philosophical sects and cult ...
'' beating it at first place.
Controversies and issues
Penang ban, viewing advisory and screening
Before the release of the film, it sparked controversies about the accuracy of its contents after the release of the trailer in relation to the 13 May riots. Opposition lawmakers alleged that the film portrayed the Chinese and the
Democratic Action Party
The Democratic Action Party (DAP; ) is a social democracy, social democratic and Secularism, secular political party in Malaysia, sitting on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum. As one of four component parties of ...
(DAP) in a negative light. Further controversy was caused after there were allegations that the film's official Facebook page featured a picture of opposition lawmaker
Lim Kit Siang
Lim Kit Siang (; born 20 February 1941) is a retired Malaysian politician. Having held the position for a total of 29 years on three separate occasions, he is the longest-serving leader of the opposition, as well the second longest-serving m ...
being carried away by a group of uniformed officials with captions claiming that Lim had urinated on the
Selangor flag in the house of former Selangor chief minister
Harun Idris. Lim denied the allegation in response and said that the picture featuring him in the Facebook page was actually taken in
Sabah
Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...
in 1984. The director Shuhaimi Baba also denied that Lim was to be featured in the film.
On 28 August 2013, the
Penang
Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...
state government had sent out advisory directives
Mok, Opalyn (29 August 2013); "Penang cinemas pull plug on ‘Tanda Putera’" , Malaysia. ''The Malay Mail Online''. Retrieved on 8 January 2014.
/ref> to all cinema operators in the state to not screen the movie. Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had claimed that there are slanderous scenes that could provoke racial hatred. However, less than 24 hours after the directives were issued on 29 August, the state government issued another contradictory letter stating they were merely "advised" against screening it, instead of otherwise banning it. Cinemas in Penang eventually screened the movie despite the state government's advisory. Communications and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the movie would reach cinemas in Penang starting 31 August 2013.
References
External links
*
{{Communism in Malaysia
2013 films
Malaysian historical films
Malaysian political films
Malay-language films
Chinese-language Malaysian films
English-language Malaysian films
Films directed by Shuhaimi Baba
Pesona Pictures films
Films produced by Shuhaimi Baba
Films with screenplays by Shuhaimi Baba
2013 controversies