Defining ourselves on our own terms

I FEEL obliged to write about the phenomenal response towards the local movie Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan, an inspired adaptation of the story of a Malay warrior fighting British colonialists in Pahang.

As a PhD candidate in Human Communication specialising in rhetorical speech, Malayophile topics interest me. Seeing a cinema audience drawn to watch this movie while wearing their tanjak (traditional Malay male headgear) and baju Melayu was especially intriguing, especially since the local film industry nowadays is saturated with romantic chick flicks and dramas that do not elicit this type of a response.