Ratapan Anak Tiri

I remember watching this movie in Taiping, though I can't remember whether it was at the Lido or Cathay.

Most likely it was the Odeon, I think.

Whatever. It is not important.

With such a sad theme song, this movie was a blockbuster in Malaysia as far as I can remember. With this movie depicting the cruelty of the step mother, all children in Malaysia would be secretly praying that they would not have to undergo such life.

God forbids, that if it was fated that the mum would pass away, the father should not even think of remarrying.

But I remember the movie more than just the song and the tear jerker scenes. I am sure tonnes of tears were cried that year. I remember the movie due to the wonderful performance by the two sisters. I thought they would have won an Oscar themselves for the performance. Better still, even better than actually winning them, their performances were so real that you would be taken by them.

Cop, the more I think about it, that it was one particular little actress that would make the movie etched in my mind, so much so when I mentioned this to a friend Tjipto from Jakarta, he would blurted me of her name. That was more than a decade ago.

Faradilla Sandy.

A name I have not heard for nearly than 3 decades until in the late 90s.

I have since gotten VCD copies of the Ratapan Anak Tiri, RAT 2 and RAT 3, and the kids and I had watched and I am sure even today they would never fail to bring you to tears, especially the first movie.

I remember in the aftermath of the movie, while visiting someone from Lenggong doing an operation in Taiping hospital - I cant recall her name, but I believe that she was there doing an eye surgery, there it was this URTV magazine with lotsa of pix from the movie.

At that impressionable age (11 years old), I was in awe of Faradilla Sandy and of Jakarta.

She was so....well, never mind. Watch the movie yourself. I think I have VCD, if you want to borrow.

Enjoy the song by Emillia Contessa and Grace Simon

EPILOGUE

Sometimes I do wonder about the way some people would treat their mothers. I mean many of them are mothers themselves or would want to become one soon. But their actions are not reflective of this philosophy.

How would they like it when their daughters treat them the way they had treated their mothers? Have they not heard of the phrase "What goes around comes around?"

Ah well, I am lost for words, and I am seldom that way, if only on paper.