Directed by Abror Rivai, Karya (2017) had its first screening at Rumah Karya on December 29 starring Hasnul Rahman, Pyan Habib, Nur Hanim Kamaruddin and more.
The story is about a man named Karya who was on his journey to be the greatest filmmaker. His ambition ran counter to his father’s wishes, causing him to run to Kuala Lumpur to pursue his dream. A tragedy in the family caused him to return home after 10 years, giving Karya a chance to reminisce on his past.
While Hasnul Rahman is the main character of the story, it was Pyan Habib’s (Karya’s father) scenes that stole the show. Pyan’s stellar performance shone through even without words, true to the quality of a talented actor. He used his body language to deliver the message to the audience.
During the Q&A session, director, Abror promised to do more in the future,
“Together with Teratak Nuromar (Producer) this is our attempt to bring back the glory of independent films that was once a big wave in the Malaysian film industry,” said Abror.
However, there are a few improvements that need to occur especially in the voice-editing area. According to Abror, although this piece is a ‘no-budget’ film, the editing team needs to be more thorough as some scenes were too noisy and because there were no subtitles provided, the audience was left in the dark as to what was going on.
“The message of this movie is clear and it wasn’t too heavy to comprehend. But it was hard to listen to some scenes because the background noise had overshadowed the actors’ voices,” said Aznira Ahmad, one of the audience.
With Karya as an experimental attempt, hopefully more independent filmmakers will step up and produce more indie-movie and who knows, it might bring back the glory of independent film industry in Malaysia!
Ili Aqilah
