Original film title in Malay: Merana
Literal English translation of film title: Languish

Directed by B. N. Rao
Language: Malay
Starring: P. Ramlee, Latifah Omar
Produced by Malay Film Productions (Shaw Bros.)

Film Locations:
Rural kampong
Sultan Mosque (illustration)

Amir (P. Ramlee), who is from a wealthy family in Ipoh, pays a visit to his uncle in Taiping after his mother urges him to get hitched to the uncle’s daughter. Upon arrival, he opts to go on a cycling excursion to the kampong on the outskirts of town. There, Amir is attracted to a poor but sweet-looking village girl named Aminah (Latifah Omar in one of her earliest lead roles), mutually falling in love at first sight while doing laundry or washing up at the kampong’s public water point or well. He tells the girl who is likewise having her first taste of infatuation: “It’s your destiny that you will leave this village and come live with me in town.” However, as so often happens in many Malay melodrama films of that era, the rural-urban and rich-poor divide proves to be a major obstacle to the blissful union of the two young lovers. Even when they succeed in getting married, Aminah becomes the tragic wife who is deemed a jinx to the family when Amir’s sister dies on the day of the wedding.

Film Images:
© 1954 Malay Film Productions
© 2002 Music Valley

(This post is dedicated to Wak Terer, who runs a fan club blog for the late Latifah Omar at latifahomarklasikfanclub.blogspot.com. His website is a very useful resource on all things related to Latifah Omar (1939-2013), the famous star actress with the ‘trademark mole’, from the golden era of Malay films in the 1950s and ’60s.)