P. Ramlee’s ‘Gerimis’ a love and Malaysian story

United as one: Chandra recalling that the movie ‘Gerimis’ (left) projects the true essence of Malaysia.

PETALING JAYA: During the 70s and 80s, Tan Sri P. Ramlee’s 1968 movie Gerimis would be aired by RTM on National Day almost every year.

The story revolves around love found, lost and found again by its main protagonists Kamal (Ramlee) and Leela (Khatijah Maidin a.k.a Chandra Shanmugam).

Although Gerimis is essentially a love story, the movie projected the essence of true Malaysia and that all Malaysians regardless of race, colour and creed were one.

When met at her residence here, Chandra, 78, recalled how Ramlee always emphasised that Malaysians were one big family, regardless of racial and religious differences.

“That was reflected in all his movies and Ramlee and his wife Saloma practised this as well,” said Chandra who is the widow of renowned Malaysian Tamil poet, script writer, composer and singer, Re Shanmugam.

Chandra, who was a trained teacher, said she quit teaching after a year and started acting in stage plays before acting in radio dramas and doing voice-overs for RTM.

“I worked full-time at the National Union of Plantation (NUPW) and part-time at RTM,” said the mother of two daughters whose hometown is Bidor, Perak.

Chandra, who acted in the popular TV series 4 Sekawan, narrated how she was roped in to play Leela in Gerimis.

“When I was told that Ramlee was interested in me playing the role, I initially declined because I was then already a wife and a mother, and my conservative Indian Muslim upbringing made it difficult to pretend to be the wife of another man, even if it was just for a movie,” said Chandra.

She said Ramlee and Saloma convinced her to take on the role and assured Chandra she would not be made to do what she did not want

Chandra remembered that it was not unusual for the various communities to embrace and accept each other’s culture and practices with ease and without any prejudices and qualms in the past.

“We didn’t need any slogans or unity commercials to bring Malaysians together then.

“We were already united as well as one in our hearts, souls and minds,” said Chandra.