Tunku The Musical

Okay, so I went to watch Tunku the Musical.

Honestly, it was, well, hmmm.

Storyline

There is no Tunku to begin with. He's not even there. I mean, you'd think Tunku the musical would be about Tunku Abdul Rahman and how he brought us to Independence but no sir, it is not.

The play starts with the happy joyful day of Independence.

And then it just goes downhill after.

By the end of the first act you'd be like what the fuck? Where's Tunku?

You'll also be asking (well at least, I asked) where the hell are the Indian people? it's like you see them in the background but you'll see that this musical focuses on the racial tension of the Malays and Chinese. From their bickering of the origins of Laksa to whether we should accept interracial couples and shit like that, it seems that the Indians have been neglected (yet again?).

Come second act the scene opens with the elections in 1969. Oh you know, the one that sparked the May 13th Tragedy? Yeah, that one.

The play ends with a cute song. Something to do with wishing they were blind - color blind. You know, so that we're not racist and crap? So, yeah.

Characters

We've got Syed who is like a total bigot.

I don't know who the hell this Syed man is supposed to be because as far as I am concerned, I don't know no Syed in the history books. I assume he is fictitious though. Syed seems to be quite the asshole because he is the one saying the Chinese will take over our country if we do not separate with Singapore so he puppets Tunku to sign the agreement of separation bla bla bla. But the plot thickens as he has a Chinese mistress. Are they trying to imply that he is a hypocrite?

Then there's Paul the journalist who is cynical about everything that goes on throughout the musical. Or is it bitterness? Maybe a bit of both. But he's the dude that unfolds all the stories and as it unravels he would have this "I-told-you-so!" or "I-knew-it!" expression on his face. Of course, during sad scenes his face is sad but it almost seems like his expression also shows "Yes-I-am-sad-to-see-such-atrocities-but-I-also-can't-help-but-say-I-knew-it-and-I-told-you-so!"

There's Malik who's Syed's son who is in love with a girl named Fauziah who happens to be a Chinese girl raised by a Malay family. But still Syed does not approve because she ain't Malay looking or something like that. Malik wants to marry Fauziah but Syed decides to ship him off to England to complete his studies. Malik is pressured to go because he needs to fulfill his duties as a Malay for his country and his people bla bla bla (all this was said by Syed). And so he goes leaving Fauziah super sad. She waits for him for four years.

Fauziah's character is pretty weak. In fact I am not trying to sound all feministy or anything but all the women's characters are weak. Fauziah doesn't do much. Also, on the day Malik returns which happened to be May 13th, she gets raped by a bunch of Malay men because they think she's Chinese.

And then there's the Chinese mistress of Syed (I forgot the name of her character which clearly shows she's insignificant). She seems to believe that Syed loves her and she doesn't want to leave him. IDIOT. He's married bitch. Get a grip.

Setting

Okay, after I got over the fact that this musical was not going to be about Tunku Abdul Rahman, my mind wandered off to the setting of the stage. Very nice indeed. Spot on. The May 13 blood on the floor scene looked really cool and the raping scene was well, vulgar. Although I'm not too sure if the two screens on the stage was entirely necessary.

Overall

It seemed to me (well, I felt it) that the musical was documenting the downfall of Tunku more than anything. It made me remember his "mistakes" in a sense that the separation of Singapore and May 13 tragedy was technically, his fault. Or was it supposed to be Syed's fault? But who is Syed supposed to represent at the end of the day?

I know the color blind song is supposed to be significant. And perhaps they were trying to say that Tunku was "color blind" but honestly the message was not stressed enough for me to see it. It was tangled up with love songs and laksa and unnecessary repetetive videos of Tunku dancing.

I guess I felt that it was really not the right time to show this musical. Not when we're about to celebrate our 50th year of Independence.

I mean, it would have been better of shown in honour of May 13th and for goodness sake don't call it Tunku. I felt like they didn't make him look like the Bapa Kemerdekaan that he was supposed to be but instead a man who was easily influenced by his advisers which in result caused the separation of Singapore and also May 13th - Bapa Senang Kena Influence?

They shouldn't have done that.

Not cool.