SINGAPORE: In a Facebook post on Saturday (Apr 22), Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam remembered P. Ramlee, writing that the acclaimed actor and musician should never be forgotten.
“Selamat Hari Raya Puasa to all Muslims, and here’s wishing too that we all keep making more of a peaceful, multicultural Singapore,” wrote SM Tharman, noting the performer’s “sheer genius” and “unmatched contributions to the film and music of the Malay world in Singapore (where he rose to fame in the 1950s), Malaysia and Indonesia.”
Mr Ramlee (22 March 1929 – 29 May 1973) is hailed as an icon of Malay-language entertainment.
“There has been no one like him on the local scene since – no one as prolific and with such enduring quality. He wrote and sang a few hundred songs, starred in 66 movies, and directed dozens. All in a short career of 25 years, before he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1973, in his mid-40s,” noted SM Tharman.
“His films made you laugh, sometimes made you cry, but were always entertaining – and to all races. Always focused on the ordinary person – even his rollicking comedies had a socially conscious angle. His love stories often involved rich and poor, and later on became interracial.”
Mr Tharman also shared that the song Getaran Jiwa (Stirring of the Soul) is his personal favourite while noting that Mr Ramlee’s Selamat Hari Raya song, composed with Jamil Sulong, is considered a classic in both Singapore and Malaysia.
Mr Tharman added that while Mr Ramlee had grown up in Penang, his fame “soared” in Singapore after arriving with his violin at the age of 19.
“Based at the Shaw Brothers’ Malay Film Productions Studio at Jin Ampas he grew, made his most celebrated films and songs, and became an icon in the world of the performing arts. (By the way, the studio is still there, with old equipment still preserved, off Balestier Rd.)”
The Senior Minister recounted that Singapore had been the centre of the Malay film and song industry in the 50s and added that when Mr Ramlee returned to Malaysia the following decade, “it was from most accounts not a happy experience, reportedly because of conflicts with other artists. He faded into obscurity, and died in poverty.”
However, posthumously, in 1990, he was given the title Tan Sri, a Malaysian honorific, nearly twenty years after he died.
“Interesting fact – the first feature film he directed, Penarek Becha (Trishaw Rider), at age 26, is said to have been inspired by a story by Lu Xun.
You can still find his films on the internet. The most popular were probably the Bujang Lapok (Raggedy Bachelors) series of comedy films, which he directed and acted in together with S Shamsuddin and Aziz Sattar,” added SM Tharman, who also noted that one of Mr Ramlee’s had married one of his regular co-stars, Saloma, who had been born in Pasir Panjang. /TISG
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