JP/Triwik K.

She is a rarity in Indonesia’s entertainment scene. She is a versatile musician who plays drum as her main instrument and together with his musician husband Aksan Sjuman, she has written beautiful scores for a number of movies. Oh, and she does acting too.

Titi Sjuman can finally relax now.

In the past few months, the 29-year-old actress-cum-musician has been busy not only acting for the upcoming film Minggu Pagi di Victoria Park (Sunday Morning at Victoria Park)—directed by female director Lola Amaria—she was also engrossed with her work in composing music for the film, and another score for Tanah Air Beta (My Homeland), a film produced by Ari Sihasale and Nia Zulkarnaen.

“I’ve just finished doing the musical score for Tanah Air Beta. I barely had time to get a break for the project because the producer of Tanah Air Beta wanted to wrap up the production as soon as possible,” Titi told The Jakarta Post in an interview at her Pondok Indah house in South Jakarta.

Titi can now spend most of her time with husband Sri Aksana Sjuman and four-year-old daughter Miyake Shakuntala and she looked fresh and relaxed in a gray blouse when the Post met her.

It was also obvious that Titi did not want an interview with the press to stand in the way of her giving most of her free time to Miyake, who occasionally interrupted the interview to show off her doodling or when she came to ask for a hug and kiss from her mother.

But at the same time, Titi did not want to lose the chance of promoting her new film. She was fond of talking about her experience in filming Minggu Pagi di Victoria Park, a drama chronicling the life of Indonesian migrant workers who live Hong Kong, produced by Indonesian and Hong Kong producers.  

In the film, Titi plays a woman from Surabaya, East Java, who traveled to Hong Kong to work as a migrant worker. For the role, Titi said she did a lot of interviews with migrant workers in China’s special administrative region.

“I spent a lot of time hanging out with them to get a deeper understanding of my role,” Titi said.

“On a daily basis, I took an acting lesson from my coach at the park by meeting Indonesian workers who liked to spend their time in the location,” she said.

The role also requires her to have knowledge of the demeanor of the migrant workers and other small details including speaking Javanese with a Surabaya accent as well as Cantonese.

The experience left a lasting impression on her. She learned that in Hong Kong, female workers from Indonesia have developed a strong sense of camaraderie.

“They were really nice and friendly. They liked to share stories among themselves and they are very open and they just love to talk,” she said, adding that most of the times the migrant workers brought with them fruits or biscuits that they would share at the park.

When these women shared their stories, Titi said that it was mostly about the joy of living and working away from home.

 “After all, they are paid generously by their employers and the Hong Kong government treats them well,” said Titi.

“They share dining room tables with their employers and have one day off once a week. Some even could celebrate their birthdays in a hotel—well, it depends on their employers but as far as I know most of them live in good conditions,” she said.

One notable feature of these migrant workers is that they always dress sharply and seems to follow the latest trend in fashions. “With their dyed hair, colorful shoes and mini skirts, they don’t look like housemaid at all. They are so fashionable,” Titi said.

She said that the only downside was the fact that these migrant workers had to be away from their family. For those who are singles there was the problem of finding their perfect match, as there are barely any male migrant workers from Indonesia in Hong Kong.

And from Titi’s observation she learned that some of the female workers later engaged in a homosexual relationship. “This is part of their lives. They are human just like the rest of us, they need love, affection,” she said.

Titi also learned that if they were given an option between leaving for Hong Kong or staying at home with their family, most of female migrant workers would choose the latter. They were in it for the money, Titi concluded.
 Another rewarding experience from the Hong Kong project was that Titi could work with Hong Kong film crews, who taught her a lesson in punctuality and speed.

“They worked very fast and I liked working that way. We started shooting early in the morning and wrapped up at 10 p.m. There has not been a time when we have to work until late in the morning, a common thing in Jakarta. As a result we were always fresh throughout the shooting of the film,” she said.    

Minggu Pagi is the third feature film in which Titi has a major role and for someone who had worked in the movie business only in the past three years, Titi is no slouch. In 2009, she won Citra award, the country’s equivalent for Oscar, for her role in the psycho-drama flick Mereka Bilang, Saya Monyet (They Say I am a Monkey).

Not bad for an actor whose decision to do acting was made only after a cajoling from her sister in law, writer and filmmaker Djenar Maesa Ayu who asked her to star in her debut film Mereka Bilang, Saya Monyet.

“Djenar first asked me and my husband to write a score for the film, but then she offered me a leading role in the film,” she said. Titi’s husband Sri Aksana Sjuman, a drummer best known for his stint with rock group Dewa 19 is a brother of Djenar.

At first Titi rejected the role as she barely had training in acting. It did not help that script for the film was quite complicated. “But she insisted and assured me that I could do it. So I decided to give it a try,” she said.
 Aksan is also an early supporter of Titi’s foray into

acting. Aksan encouraged her to work more professionally and was more than willing to encourage Titi to take a kissing scene seriously. “Aksan told me that in a kissing scene, when I kiss a man, my body should not reject it,” she said.

Titi may not be a method actor, but she said that she only works for a role that would test her acting skill. “I want challenging roles wherein I could embody a strong character. I’d like to play a role of a person with five different personalities. Minggu Pagi is challenging because it is not easy to enact the life of migrant worker,” she said.

These days acting may have taken up much of her time, but music is Titi’s true calling.    

Titi learned to play piano when she was a little girl. She switched to drums in high school. “I don’t know why I chose drums. I think drums are different. Since I was a little girl, I always wanted to do something different, something positive that people can emulate,” she said.

It is also easy to fall for this instrument. “I fell in love the first time I played the instrument. It just felt good. I found it more satisfying than other musical instruments,” she said.    

At first, she took drumming lessons at the Farabi Music School before continuing at the Daya Music Institute. It was during her study at Farabi that she got the chance to meet her future husband, who was an instructor at Farabi.

Her lessons at the two music schools soon paid off.  As a drummer, Titi had earned her place in the spotlight by performing at the music industry’s coveted venues. She has performed for instance for the Java Jazz Festival, where he shared the bill with a number of musicians, including jazz organist Tony Monaco, Dutch Hammond organist John Hondrop, and local singer Rieka Roeslan.

She has also been a go-to session player. She has lent her drumming skills to Idang Rasjidi, who recorded his live performance at the Four Season hotel for the album Live at Four Season. She is also session player for pop singer Ruth Sahanaya who recorded her performance for the album Joyful Christmas.

After years of immersing in the joy of music, Titi and Aksan have made plans to spread their love of music to young people by setting up a new music school that will offer lessons in piano, guitar and drums.

And once again, Aksan will be a part of the project, the way he had been involved in almost any projects that Titi has been part of. Aksan was the one who introduced writing music for films to Titi. And after a reluctant start, Titi later found out that film scoring is something that she could do with passion.

“I’m a big fan of John Williams. He created amazing compositions for movies like Star Wars, Memoirs of a Geisha and Home Alone,” she said.

Titi also takes pride from the fact that not many people take up composing music for films as their day job. Titi and Aksan take this job seriously, requiring them to visit the sets, interviewing cast and crews to get the perfect vibes for the movie project.

The couple’s hard work won an important recognition when their score for the feature film King won the Citra Award at the Indonesian Film Festival in 2009.  

Having a professional relationship with her husband has also given new meaning to their marriage.

“To be honest with you, it’s not easy working a husband. We used to bring family matters to the studio. Now, we can separate family and business matters,” Titi said.

“At home, we are husband and wife, but in the studio, we are professional partners. Should we have problem at home, we should not talk about it in the studio,” she said.

With all the success and a beautiful family that she now has, Titi is content to take everything in her stride.
“Well, I still have many dreams. But, I just go with the flow and let God decide for me what the next dream would be. I’m just waiting for more surprises,”

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