The writer (left) with Yasmin. — Picture courtesy of Suhaimi Sulaiman.

Yasmin Ahmad — daughter, wife, sister, aunt, friend, mentor, mother, human being. FATIMAH ABU BAKAR celebrates her spirit and her magic.

YASMIN Ahmad came into our lives with a phone call. “Assalamualaikum, my name is Yasmin Ahmad and I’m working on a film. Would you allow your daughter to be in it?” Of course, we knew that name was responsible for the incredibly clever and touching commercials she had directed.

I don’t remember actually looking forward to commercials before Yasmin Ahmad. And, Rabun, her first movie which immortalised her parents Mak Inom and Pak Atan. But that phone call, which led to Sepet and then Gubra, Mukhsin, Muallaf and Talentime, brought her to a permanent place in our hearts. Later, “your daughter” would become “our daughter” and my other three girls would also be fortunate enough to earn roles in her films.

Yasmin with Sharifah Aryana (left) and Mohd Syafie during the filming of Mukhsin.

She would be Kak Min and Mak to them as she was to so many other people she had touched. That was one magic of Yasmin Ahmad - that she could be friend, mentor and mother to so many and yet make each and every one feel special and loved. It is hard to write this, as we try to come to terms with the fact that no more would we hear, watch and feel her stories. Our daughter is devastated that her “talian hayat” had been so abruptly cut.

Yet even as we grieve, I tell them it must be so much harder for her beloved husband, daddy Yew Leong, her own mak and abah and their families on both sides.
Come to think of it, they know she’s very much with us. She resides in all her works, be they the commercials about our dream Malaysia, or her movies which have moved filmgoers worldwide.

Celebrate her spirit, I tell them. Keep her alive by continuing what she started. You will never lose her that way. Yes, she had always said she made her films for her parents and if others liked them too, that would be an added bonus. But because she was admittedly an incurable romantic and a genius storyteller, her stories became our stories as we all discovered little bits of ourselves in them.

For some, we would recognise huge chunks. Uncanny, but many times it seemed as if we looking at ourselves in a mirror. Be brave like her too, I tell them. Our daughter especially remember the difficult periods in Mak’s life when it seemed people were determined to break her down because they couldn’t or didn’t want to understand the issues she dealt with in her films.

I had no answers when they asked what was so difficult for people not to understand? And how could so many be so cruel to a storyteller who told simple tales of love? What were poignant, lyrical, fresh and funny were oftentimes viewed as offensive to some. And because the girls got too close to the fire, they too were badly singed. But what was important was that they saw that Mak refused to be beaten.

In her own dignified defiance, driven by her need to share her stories about humanity, love, frailty, hope, compassion, honesty and forgiveness, they saw how she continued to make us see ourselves. That really what she was unveiling were more huge mirrors and that it was all right to laugh, cry, lament, despair and just be hopelessly human. That it was okay to be different as long as there was mutual respect. It was never more evident they realised at her final farewell.

Being great fans of Mak’s works, the girls are grateful they got to be for a while Mak’s Orked, Mak Inom, Ani and Ana. They are proud to be part of Mak’s magic of making the ordinary extraordinary. Our daughter, who had been too busy to check her emails, did so this evening. There was one from Mak. She had attached two pictures she titled her “brave beautiful baby”. They were of our daughter in her bald and wounded glory shot during the filming of Muallaf. How do you quantify grief?

Dear Min, like all your children, my girls are probably wishing they had loved you less. They miss you terribly. That void in their hearts I cannot fill and won’t even try. But they too believe, corny and sappy as people would have it sound, that truly love conquers all. They will have to find comfort in the verses you so carefully selected from your favourite book — the al-Quran — for all your films. Especially that in Muallaf which says, “He will never put upon you any burden too heavy to bear.”

I am glad you also reinforced the idea that it is more than all right, if not imperative, that we read the other Books too. Read them with your heart. Only then will you understand and not fear. You have always credited Allah for your successes. You were a mere conduit, you said. We too thank Allah for bringing you into our lives. And we know all who love you, especially all your children, echo that.

To them, the other labels didn’t matter too much. Most important was you were Mak. Crazy, cool, temperamental, clever, hard-driving, manic, inspirational Mak.
And just like your mum’s, your love too was unconditional. Your eyes and heart seldom let you down. That’s how you found them — all your babies. That was your gift. And undoubtedly your greatest legacy. Al-Fatihah, my love.

• The writer is the former editor of Life & Times and now an acting coach who’s worked with Akademi Fantasia contestants and trained actors in numerous films including Layar Lara, Embun, Ringgit Kasorrga, 1957: Hati Malaya, Sara, Anak, Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam, Sayang You Can Dance and Hikayat Merong Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa. Her four daughters — Sharifah Aleya, Sharifah Amani, Sharifah Aleysha and Sharifah Aryana — have all acted in Yasmin’s films.

Yasmin, with the cast of Talentime, was friend, mentor and mother to so many and made every one of them feel special and loved..

Profil Berkaitan

 Fatimah Abu Bakar    Yasmin Ahmad    Sepet    Gubra    Mukhsin    Talentime    Muallaf    Layar Lara    Embun    Ringgit Kasorrga    1957: Hati Malaya    Sara    Anak    Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam    Sayang You Can Dance    Leya    Sharifah Amani    Sharifah Aryana    Sharifah Aleysha