– Zikri Kamarulzaman
The Malaysian Insider
August 31, 2013

There’s been a lot of talk about Tanda Putera in the mainstream media lately.

I won’t be touching about the controversial bits, or the bad, sometimes emotionless acting (the Mahathir character was spot on, but unnecessary).

I will talk about its value as a movie.

Tanda Putera is a disaster in storytelling, two stories made into one, barely held together by Tun Abdul Razak’s character.

In fact, if you don’t know the subject matter or history, you will be completely utterly lost.

None of the characters were properly introduced in any way whatsoever. You’re just supposed to know who they are.

Same goes for the plot, with barely any background to explain what’s going on.

And there’s so much happening, and at such a fast pace, that you don’t connect with anyone or anything as the movie progresses.

The Universiti Malaya students who were friends caught in the middle of racial riots were weak.

There was no real sense of fear for them, no sense of how they really looked after each other.

You’re better off learning about unity and being friends with all races through a Petronas commercial.

Shuhaimi Baba’s defence about the movie being more about Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, two men who gave up everything, including their lives for the country, also fell short.

Sacrifice in this movie means passing away while in office and hiding your illness.

Neither were shown as having a real impact on the nation, their deeds, a passing mention.

The best way to put it, is that this movie is “syok sendiri”.

It is hard to fathom how anyone will be inspired to be more patriotic by this movie, especially the youths who won’t have much to keep their attention.

This movie is a farce to our nation’s history, and its screening during Merdeka is nothing more but a ploy to make as much money as possible before people realise how bad it is. – August 31, 2013.