A throwback to almost 50 years ago in the black-and-white "Isi Neraka" directed by Jamil Sulong, "Maut" is a powerful study of Man and the afterlife, told through a three-part story punctuated by the months of the Islamic calendar. Chronicling the twisted destinies of a stranger on a bus, a sinful air stewardess and an angry young man obsessed with gothic black metal, "Maut" plays judge, jury and executioner; delivering a compelling story beyond today's industry norms. Expect to see car crashes, rude tattoos and loose women contrasted against graveyards, demonic visions and ghostly apparitions as award-winning director Bade Hj. Azmi returns to the forefront of hallmark filmmaking.
There's a new Malay movie that isn't about petty love triangles, haunted houses or MTV mermaids. Three hurrahs for hope!
However when we learn that "Malaikat Maut" (a much more intriguing title) is now simply "Maut", one can't help but wonder just how far we have come in terms of creative license vis-à-vis the Lembaga Penapisan Filem, the vanguard of our Malaysian moral fidelity. It's almost as if the compromise instantly changed the texture of the original film. What's wrong with the title and which one better describes the movie's content?
The director's wish to create a fiction that's meaningful and true to its concept has met many marketing problems, leading us to believe that this finished product isn't the masterpiece he had in mind. From past movies such as "Gangster", "Castello and "KL Menjerit", it's without doubt that Bade is very obsessed with dark elements of social disintegration. However works such as "Syaitan" and now "Maut" hints towards a fascination with the supernatural as well, a sort of pondering on the anxieties and uncertainties faced by Man. Kudos to Bade for keeping up!
In all three plot vignettes, the element of death is obvious but the strange character arcs leave the audience no chance to emphatise with them. Perhaps the director intended to neglect this aspect to further stress that death and misfortune are truly unpredictable.
What's confusing isn't the directing style of Bade Azmi for he's a veteran in infusing plots with interesting scenes such as a car accident hurling a Waja into the Sentul drain. What's confusing is when a disclaimer appears in the middle of a scene to warn us of faith matters when we're busy watching Sabrina Hassan being chased by a CGI cobra. Is this the compromise reached just to satisfy the 'U' classification?
The performances of these young artistes were professional if only satisfactory but this Que Haidar is really starting to rise heaps and bounds above what we know as local standards of talent. Even his face brings to mind memories of the late Sudirman. We also learn that Fouziah Ghous can do natural. Meanwhile, newcomer Sabrina Hassan plays a lead role for the first time and is still finding maturity - she needs to be seen and not heard in this movie.
Going back to the product, what's certain is that "Maut" has lost some of the supernatural elements that we were promised. Then again, the plot structure and the religious elements are something you don't get to see every day. Even if doesn't knock any sense into those recent New Year sex party revellers, it'd surely entertain moviegoers who want to see something different.
