03 · The Art
Inspirations and Influences
The movies in which P. Ramlee starred were among the studio’s most profitable. His co-stars were actresses such as Kasma Booty, Siput Sarawak, Saadiah, Rokiah, Latifah Omar, Rosnani, Normadiah, Zaiton and Sarimah, and there was much gossip about them among hot-blooded young fans.
The Indian directors with whom he worked liked to include a scene where the hero and heroine sang and danced in beautiful gardens, a standard scene inherited from Indian films. Especially popular were scenes of P. Ramlee singing and dancing with actresses admired by fans. L. Krishnan observed:
Ramlee is not the swashbuckling hero type. He is the sentimentalist who brings pathos to the kampongs.
L. Krishnan
The songs from the films were broadcast on Radio Malaya, and words and music were often printed in film magazines. Since most of the songs were composed and sung by P. Ramlee himself, he was notably successful at conveying their respective themes and the right sort of feeling. He composed many songs in traditional Malay music such as inang, zapin, masri, asli, joget, boria and keroncong. Examples include “Inang Baru” (inang), “Gambus Jodoh” (zapin), “Nak Dara Rindu”, “Joget Pahang” (joget) and “Alunan Biola” (keroncong).
P. Ramlee was also remarkably adept at mixing and adapting foreign musical styles to Malay songs, among them the waltz in “Tidurku di Rumput Yang Basah”, Middle Eastern elements in “Ya Habibi Ali Baba” and Chinese influences in “Hoi-Hoi Ya-Hoi”. The various rhythms he utilised included the samba (“Nasi Goreng”), beguine (“Merak Kayangan”), andante (“Mengapa Riang Ria”), bolero (“Juwita”), rumba (“Bila Larut Malam”), slow beguine (“Putus Sudah Kaseh Sayang”), slow rumba (“Hamidah”), twist (“Bunyi Gitar”) and mambo (“Kwek Mambo”).
Throughout his career, P. Ramlee depicted the lives of artists in many of his films. These included characters such as a saxophonist (Kassim Selamat in Ibu Mertua-ku and Shaari in Masam-Masam Manis), a pianist (Ghazali in Antara Dua Darjat), a trumpeter (Raimy in Ibu), a violinist (Hassan in Anak-ku Sazali), a singer (Osman in Keluarga 69), a painter (Si Bongkok in Sumpah Orang Minyak), an actor (Ramlee in Seniman Bujang Lapok) and a composer (Amir in Hujan Panas).
