Madu Tiga

1964

Three Wives

P. Ramlee As Jamil · Directed By P. Ramlee

• Best Comedy — 11th Asian Film Festival, Taipei, 1964

Jamil (P. Ramlee) runs the business of his rich father-in-law, Haji Latif (Ahmad Nisfu), with skill and energy, and is the old man's favourite; his wife, Latifah, prefers to stay at home and seldom asks where he goes. One evening Jamil dresses up for what he says is a friend's wedding. It is his own, to Hasnah (Jah Hj. Mahadi). Latifah hears of it from guests who praise her generosity in allowing it, bursts in on the last night of the celebrations, and Jamil flees.

For three days no one knows where he is: each wife assumes he is with the other. Jamil returns to Latifah swathed in bandages, saying he was hit by a lorry, while his clerk, Rafee, answers every question with 'Kasian'; to Hasnah he says his first wife nearly clawed his eyes out. Haji Latif covers for him, and each wife believes herself the only one.

Still not content, Jamil falls for Rohani (Sarimah), a tenant's daughter, and marries for the third time. Latifah and Hasnah call on the new wife, until Hasnah sees his photograph on her dressing table. The three women search the house and find only a rope hanging from an upstairs window. In the end they decide to go on sharing him, since if anything happened to Jamil they would all be widows. The film features the song 'Selamat Pengantin Baru', sung by Saloma. (Synopsis after Ahmad Sarji, Erti Yang Sakti, 1999.)