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'Ada Surga Di Rumahmu': Shallow, superficial and vainglorious

Ada Surga Di Rumahmu (There Is Heaven In Your Home) is produced by Mizan and directed by Aditya Gumay, the team behind the Muslim film Emak Ingin Naik Haji (Emak Wants to Go on Haj)

Hans David Tampubolon (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, April 11, 2015

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'Ada Surga Di Rumahmu':  Shallow, superficial and vainglorious

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da Surga Di Rumahmu (There Is Heaven In Your Home) is produced by Mizan and directed by Aditya Gumay, the team behind the Muslim film Emak Ingin Naik Haji (Emak Wants to Go on Haj).

That film was critically acclaimed. This time around, however, the creative team has made a shallow, superficial and vainglorious movie.

The film adapts a semi-biographical novel about Ustadz Ahmad Al-Habsyi. While the book acknowledges the popular and charismatic cleric'€™s parents and his hometown; the adaptation goes off the rails to focus almost exclusively on Al-Habsyi.

Al-Habsyi is represented by a character named Ramadhan in the film, which starts with the story of his childhood in a fishing village in Palembang.

As in other Mizan movies, there are a host of well-shot images of dazzling scenery and well-cast child actors, such as Ramadhan, charmingly played by Raihan Khan, who gained fame after playing martial artist Jiung in the local soap opera Pendekar Cabe Rawit.

Ramadhan is a hot-tempered boy who tells Islamic stories in a dramatic style that captivates people in his local mosque and attracts attention from some television clerics.

What the boy really wants to do, however, is act '€” and read comic books. His parents '€” Abuya (Budi Khairul) and Umi (Elma Theana) '€” eventually send the misbehaving boy to a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) run by his uncle, the famous cleric Athar, played by none other than Al-Habsyi.

The set-up shows some promise. Aditya takes the audience inside the dynamics of a pesantren with several humorous scenes set among the students. Ramadhan befriends Agus (Nata Aman Pratama) and Abdul (Jeany Fersu) and the trio wind up breaking the rules, only to be punished by Athar.

The punishments are funny enough to trigger chuckles. For example, after being caught watching television at night, the boys are told to preach to the dead in a nearby cemetery. The expressions and witty one-liners from the children compensate for otherwise lackluster camerawork.

After this section '€” which lasts about 30 minutes '€” the film declines sharply following the appearance of the adult Ramadhan, played by Indonesian Idol finalist Husein Al Atas.

From this point on, the film is all about how Ramadhan is the greatest, most perfect man on Earth.

He is depicted as a loving cleric whose preaching makes people cry. Ramadhan is so awesome that two beautiful young ladies '€” Kirana (Zeezee Shahab) and Nayla (Nina Septiani) '€” do everything in their power to get his attention.

Later scenes pay little tribute to Ramadhan'€™s parents, which was the central theme of the original story. To make things worse, Ramadhan clearly shows in the movie that he only becomes a cleric and preaches for the money after he fails to follow his acting dreams.

Most abysmal, however, are the adult actors, who could learn much from the children in the film.

Al-Habsyi, in particular, is a complete disaster, Husein needs to go back into singing and the rest of the cast, such as Zeezee and Nina, are little more than mannequins for cosmetic and Islamic clothing product placements.

In terms of artistic value and pride, this is one film that Aditya needs to drop from his growing curriculum vitae.

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