Malay Drama

While the rest of the world has made a variety of dramas related to many different things, Malay dramas primarily centred around romantic love (boy-girl; husband-wife; girlfriend-boyfriend; love-triangles) and revenge (mostly amongst 2 individuals or 2 families).

Apart from Sabri Yunus' works related to "kisah masyarakat"; Leftenen Zana that portrays life in the army; and probably Jalan Sesat ke Syurga about a cult; I can't think of other shows that steers away from the plotlines mentioned in the above paragraph.

I must say I get so lethargic watching rehashed storylines. I wonder if the actors are tired of it as much as me. Is it the Malaysian viewers that demand these shows? Or are the scriptwriters already out of ideas? Or are all our book adaptations crappy because all our novels are about romantic love?

Korean drama; Japanese; even Chinese ones have evolved in leaps and bounds, and Malaysian dramas are still on the same plane. Tamil and Malaysian-Chinese-speaking dramas are breaking away from love-themed concepts but I guess they do not receive as much funding or viewership as Malay dramas.

Can we have dramas about:

- teachers teaching in rural areas

- B40 folks literally struggling to live

- kids from kampung and studying/ working in the cities

- pengemis/ beggars; prostitutes; drug users (reformed or otherwise) >> incidentally, Nur and Nur 2 were great/ fantastic shows

- a person who has faced challenges starting multiple businesses

- a chemist, physicist, mathematician

- a trainee in the aeronautics field, or Malaysia's future astronaut

- a sportsman, or a sports 

- a business idea that flopped/ succeeded

- a biography

- politics/ constitution (although I would admit that our current political scene is already fodder for drama)

- aspects of Malaysian history

- mythical stories/ fables (these may end up censored or banned post production due to tahyul themes)

- sci-fi (that is not silly looking) >> Hikayat Putera Syazlan many years ago was a great example of an imaginative drama, although not too sci-fi

- friends who achieve great things together e.g. a science project or an invention? (if we want kids interested in STEM, why do we not have more science shows?)

- language learning or travelling or exploration (e.g. Oh My English)

- sleuthing (e.g. Geng Bas Sekolah)

I know at the end of the day it is easier said than done. Me the couch potato can have 200 opinions yet the work will be done by the players/ experts in their fields who takes responsibility for the content. Come on Malaysia! We can do better 💪