While his most successful works had always been comedies, P.Ramlee shows his impressive range as an actor in this classic war movie, one of the few notable Malay war movies ever made till this present day. Without a doubt, one of my favourite P.Ramlee movies.
Set in the period of the Japanese Occupation in Malaya, the movie follows the trials and tribulations of an adopted young boy,Hassan, and how he rose up in life to make something of himself,while serving his people as a sergeant in the Malay Infantry Regiment. Fictional it may be, Ramlee's underdog and good guy character quickly endears itself to the the viewers.
The movie's lesson on honour,loyalty,integrity and kinship is aptly delivered using the rivalry of Hassan and his step brother and also the atrocities of a Malay Japanese collaborator,Buang (played brilliantly by Salleh Kamil) and the infamous Kempeitai. The speech by Hassan near the end of the movie is delivered with some effect and will inspire the patriot in all of us.
While the war scenes in this movie won't impress anybody too much, the fine passionate work of the lead actor,and its supporting cast showed exactly why the Malay movie industry flourished in the 1950's.A classic like this and many other P.Ramlee movies deserves to be immortalised into a DVD set. The big wigs at Shaw Brothers or whoever it is holding on to the original movie reels,take note.
