Directed by Phani Majumdar
Written by Phani Majumdar
Language: Malay
Starring: Zaiton, Aziz Jaafar, S. Kadarisman
Produced by Malay Film Productions (Shaw Bros.)

Film Locations:
Coastal kampong (Tanjong Kling?)
University of Malaya (Singapore) at Bukit Timah Road (formerly Raffles College)

 

Doctor is another of director Phani Majumdar’s (social realist) melodrama films that was set in then-contemporary Singapore, immediately following his gritty film about child delinquency – Masharakat Pinchang. It tells the story of a village carpenter and boat-builder Bakar (S. Kadarisman) who loses his daughter to illness because he is unable to afford the exorbitant medical fees. He resolves to send his son Idris (Aziz Jaafar) to medical college (in spite of his kampong neighbours’ mocking), with the hope that he will become a doctor to serve the poor and the weak.

Idris fulfils his father’s wish and completes his medical studies at the University of Malaya (Singapore). Sympathetic to the poor, Idris initially refuses payment from his underprivileged patients but he soon realizes that he cannot sustain his practice without demanding a fee. A girl, as had happened to Idris’ sister, dies because her family couldn’t pay him to treat her. Knowing this, Bakar admonishes Idris severely and falls ill himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further Reading:
1. ‘‘The Doctor’ is a work of art’. The Singapore Free Press. 26 July 1958, p. 4.
2. ‘Tiga film Melayu untok pesta Asia di-Manila’. Berita Harian. 14 March 1958, p. 7.
3. Raffles College. Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board, 2011.
4. National University of Singapore. Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board, 2006.

Film Images:
© 1958 Malay Film Productions
© 2003 Music Valley

Digital Map Source:
1. Great Britain. Ordnance Survey, Singapore Island, National Library of Australia, MAP G8040 1941. [http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn1900708]
2. Great Britain. Royal Air Force, Singapore photomap, National Library of Australia, MAP G8041.A4 s6 1950. [http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn502375]

Photographs:
© 2014 Toh Hun Ping