First and foremost, I must congratulate Ahmad Idham and David Teo for breaking the the Sembilu 2 barrier and become the highest grossing Malay film ever after more than 12 years. It was a long wait, and indeed if it were ever to happen, one could only expect that such a feat could only be emulated if not broken by our Super Duper Successful Producer, David Teo. His Metrowealth Movies are success stories of their own - sometimes daring, bold, although never to Critics' flavour or interest, the bottom line is David knows WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT.
Knowing and understanding what people or audience want is what Moviemaking is all about. After all Moviemaking is a Business, a thriving Business, and Business is all about money making merriment. Hence, the success of cinematic movies nowadays could only be through Marketing, Marketing and more Marketing.
Which is why Sumolah, no matter how good the Critics praise about the movie (and the spirit of Malaysian-ness that it brings along with it) and after a long hype, still could not gather enough steam to topple the barrage of on-going Summer Blockbusters that kept on bursting into the local cinemas including the current flavour Spiderman 3.
We all know what Spiderman 3 is all about. We've seen the first two episodes, hence audience flock to see the movie out of curiosity and loyalty towards the prequels. We love watching Tobey Maguire in the red-blue outfit, and we adore Kirsten Dunst's portrayal of the ever-so-sweet Mary Jane Watson. And we can't wait to see who could top Willem Dafoe or Alfred Molina when it comes to battling our Friendly Neighbourhood.
Afdlin Shauki on the other hand created a lot of buzz with his promotions via an aggressive tele-communications' campaign, and we were seriously looking forward to see what this "huge fella" could conjure after his earlier successful stints via his provocative and funny (in a very Malaysian way) Buli Series and Baik Punya Cilok. They were all money spinners. Afdlin, at one time, could do no wrong. With Sumolah, it looked as though it could be his Cash Cow.
But guess what? Moviemaking is so strange. Sometimes a darn good movie can't seem to find an audience in a huge market (e.g. Crash, Letters from Iwojima, Pan's Labyrinth), and sometimes a so-so movie but with a darn great marketing could blow the top of the Box Office Charts like nobody's business (Hint: The Pirates of the Caribbean Sequels).
That is just a fact we can't deny. And as a movie maker, no matter how difficult for him to fathom, Afdlin may just have to be strong and have faith in the system. He may not be rewarded with the cash, but who knows along the way, he may be awarded with some merits.
But then again, isn't movie about money making...???
