Sunday, August 5, 2018

Si Doel the Movie - A Movie Bringing Out Nostalgic Memories for the Fans of the Series

I have heard about this movie for quite some time now and my wife and I were pretty excited when they decided to make a movie based on the very popular TV series in the 1990s and early 2000 in Indonesia. When the trailer started to be shown in theaters, we noticed that the story was like a continuance of the series and not a new story or a reboot. We finally saw the movie yesterday after it premiered for 2 days and here are more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Doel (Rano Karno - Gita Cinta dari SMA, Roman Picisan etc) who now worked as freelance technician and his uncle Mandra (played by Mandra) were asked by their old friend Hans (Adam Jagwani) to deliver some original Betawi traditional stuff to Holland to be used in a festival there. Doel had to leave his mother MakNyak (Aminah Cendrakasih - Habis Gelap Terbitlah Terang, Rumah Masa Depan TV series etc) who was now an invalid and blind due to her sickness in the care of Doel's sister Atun (Suti Karno) and his wife Zaenab (Maudy Koesnaedi - Garuda di Dadaku, Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka etc).


Zaenab was really worried that Doel might meet with his old love Sarah (Cornelia Agatha - Rini Tomboy, Detik Terakhir etc) in Holland, but being a passive woman made her only accepting her fate and feeling sad all the time. Meanwhile Mandra seemed to have a great time in Holland whereas Doel indeed meet with Sarah there. Suddenly things became very complicated for everyone especially with the fact of Doel and Sarah's unresolved problem many years ago.

So what would happen to Doel and Sarah and of course Zaenab? Find them all in this drama that bring so many nostalgic feelings to us.

End of Brief Story Line

I got to be honest that I have either completely forgotten how the story ended during the run of whole 6 seasons of Si Doel Anak Sekolahan on TV or I probably did not see its ending, coz I was a bit confused about the continuity of the series with the movie. However, as the story progressed, we finally could grasp the story as it was not that difficult to understand. The past occurrences were told in the earlier part of the movie and we could relate to them easily.

When the movie started, suddenly all the memories my wife and I had when watching the series many years ago came flooding. It was really fun to see some of the iconic characters at that moment appeared again in front of our eyes albeit older and larger size (except for Maudy Koesnaedi who did not seem to change at all since last time we saw her). It was also a bit sad to see Aminah Cendrakasih in her condition but at the same time amazed by her spirit of still supporting this movie. It was even sadder as some of the original cast have passed away like comedian Benyamin (as Doel's father) and Basuki (who used to play as Atun's husband). Our most favorite character in this movie would surely be Mandra who was very very fun to see and he brought life into an otherwise serious film.

My wife and I also felt amazed by all these actors and actresses who managed to revive their roles after so many years. It was like they have never left at all and they really jumped into characters so easily. I guess Rano Karno who directed the movie (and previously also directed the series) still got his touch which was incredible considering he had been quite inactive for a while since he went into politics few years ago.

There was no big surprise on the plot of the movie, especially since we could already guess from the movie's trailer. It had only 86 minutes duration and there would be hardly too much time to have multiple plots. The best part of the movie plot would be the conclusion towards the end which left us a bit satisfied but at the same time wanting some more. The story was also quite touching especially the scene with background song of Selamat Jalan Kekasih performed by group band Wizzy which made my wife (and probably most of the audience) feeling very emotional. I think it was quite beautifully done with lovely Amsterdam's scenery. There was also a young newcomer named Rey Bong who despite having brief screen time but did have significant impact.

Anyway, I believe that this movie would certainly have a very large appeal for the fans of the series. It definitely gave the sense of nostalgic to us, but I think would be hard to attract the newer (younger) audience who did not have the chance to watch the original series when it was shown on TV years before. We would see if this movie could be a great success and spawned into additional sequels. So if you are looking for more triangle love story between Doel, Sarah and Zaenab, plus you want to see Mandra does his best of giving various hilarious comments, then you surely would not want to miss this one. My wife and I personally had quite a great time seeing this movie.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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