It is difficult for a son to live in the shadows of his father. Invariably, they do not live up to their fathers' achievements. Living examples of these are too numerous to be enumerated - Gandhi's son, Harilal, a disappointed young man who died as a vagabond in a corridor bed of a general hospital; Michael Douglas and his drug-plagued son; Charlie Sheen (son of Martin Sheen) and his troubles with booze and women; Eric Clapton's son and suicide from a skyscraper after a drug overdose; John Lennon's offspring Julian stayed at best as a one-hit wonder.
This fact was reinforced from this small book written in Malay by Malaysia's legendary actor, musician, director extraordinaire P. Ramlee's only biological son, Nasir. It was published in 2007, a year before he succumbed to heart ailment and complications of diabetes at 54 years of age. This book was different from other P. Ramlee featured books as it most talked about happenings within the Ramlee household and Nasir in particular, though not into much of depth.
Nasir must have grown confused as in his early childhood, there was a constant tussle between Ramlee and his biological mother, Junaidah. Ramlee and Junaidah divorced after 4 years of marriage due to her suspicious nature and his association with many young starlets of the old Malay movie silver screen golden era! The custodial scramble became so bad that Nasir was once kidnapped to his grandparents' place in Penang!Later, our young hero had to adjust to living with the palace trained regimental styled ex-consort of the Perak Sultanate, Noorizan who lived by rules and regulations around the house. Nasir was already a tween when Saloma came to the picture. Again, after much reluctance, he relented to accept another stepmother.
Some of P Ramlee's movie stories were based on their everyday lives. Living under the second wife was like in 'Tiga Abdul' with the culture of elegant dining and behaviour. Lyrics of the song 'Hujan di Tengah Hari' seem to mirror Ramlee's attempt to save his first marriage.
Nasir described his father as a kind man who had no qualms talking and sharing his food with the little men.
Nasir did not grow up as an abandoned and lonely son. P. Ramlee readily accepted many adopted children under his care. Some of them did not even have proper adoption papers. A few of them were also of Chinese parentage. Sazali was adopted soon after 'Anak Ku Sazali'. He was also P. Ramlee's favourite. Sabaruddin came in after 'Sabaruddin Tukang Kasut' (a movie). There were others named Zazaloma, Normah and Betty. Dian was a Saloma's adopted Chinese girl, and Armali was her son from her previous marriage to another Malay movie legend, A. R. Tompel. [Trivia: P Ramlee, Saloma and Tompel acted together in 'Keluarga 69']
The whole family were in good spirits in the good old days when the main Malay movie studio was Jalan Ampas, Singapore. Ramlee employed personalised tuition teachers for his kids.
One of his passions (besides making movies) was cooking, not a good one though, according to Nasir's description. P. Ramlee also had some healing powers. He used to prescribe holy water (Quranic verses recited) to his children and acquaintances with favourable results. After the studio wind down due to workers' demands and strike, their migration to Kuala Lumpur marked their downfall. Ramlee's movies were not selling as well as it used to. It affected his family on the whole, money wise.
Nasir's education began to decline. He started playing truant and was expelled from school. He started working in his father's studio, working with the props and doing minor roles in movies. He played music at a small scale in bands around KL - never reaching his father's stature.
We can see from the book that P Ramlee was indeed a sad man in the 70s. He was in dire straits. Saloma had to sing in nightclubs to make ends meet.
Two of P Ramlee's adopted daughters (Normah and Betty) eloped with their boyfriends, and their whereabouts were not known to Nasir at the time of writing. Nasir, like his father, had 3 marriages. P Ramlee and his son, like most Singaporeans at that time, used to converse in English admixed with Malay. A touching worth mentioning conversation allegedly took place between father and son...
' "Nasir: Kenapa Lu suka buat lagu bertemekan cinta, nama perempuan, nama-nama bunga? Gua tak minatlah!
Tiba-tiba dia naik radang dan meninggikan suaranya.
Ramlee: Kalau Lu nak tahu, ada 3 sebab. Pertama, Gua punya suka. Kedua, Lulah anak
yang tak guna, yang tak menghargai ciptaan bapa sendiri. Yang ketiga, kalau Gua
mati nanti, barulah Lu tahu betapa klasiknya ciptaan P Ramlee. Apa punya anak,
berjuta suka lagu saya, anak sendiri mencerca kita' "
Nasir's daytime job was selling nasi lemak and fruits for which he was persecuted regularly by the local council (DBKL) for failing to own a legitimate trading license until he mentioned his predicament to the Prime Minister (Dr M) when Nasir represented his father to receive a posthumous award. Nasir succumbed to heart ailments and complications of diabetes at the age of 54 in 2008.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI watched Life History of P. Ramlee and I was very touched when I knew he died penniless. We used to love his movies.
His movies fail to attract audience in 70's as Hindi movies were hitting the cinema and the Malays were watching Hindi movies.
His talent was not recognized in Malaysia as in Singapore. What a sad ending. His son Nasir was working with MSPP as a general worker before selling nasi lemak.