Monty Tiwa’s latest movie Shy Shy Cat tries to tell the story about social class and urbanization through a comedic route, which, unfortunately, often falls short in the punchline department.

The story is a familiar one set in Jakarta-centered Indonesian society. The uneven economic development between Jakarta and the rest of the regions, historically, has forced flocks of men and women from remote villages to migrate to the capital city in search for a better life.

Extensive urbanization has caused an accumulation of poverty in the big cities, especially Jakarta, due to the fact that most of the people from the regions lack the required skills to do formal jobs. Most will find themselves struggling to survive and do whatever means necessary to earn money to support their families back home.

Few, who are lucky enough to be educated, find modest success in Jakarta.

In Shy Shy Cat, the main character Mira (Nirina Zubir) represents this segment. Coming from a remote village in West Java, Mira manages to become a successful young banker in Jakarta. She has her own place and drives a quite lavish new Mini Cooper.

Mira’s two best friends Umi (Tika Bravani) and Jessy (Acha Septriasa) similarly also have blossoming careers.

Umi works as a fashion designer though has some anxiety issues, which she needs to take regular medication for in order to prevent her from entering full suicidal mode. As for Jessy, she is an actress who is slowly building her career to the top by playing in B-class horror movies.

The three of them are 30 and they have the whole world ahead of them to conquer until Mira’s father Abah Ujen (Budi Dalton) calls her, demanding she fulfill an oath she has made years ago. The oath is that if Mira cannot find a husband by the time she reaches 30, then she will agree to marry Otoy (Fedi Nuril), the son of a cleric in her home village.

Mira remembers Otoy as an annoying perverted kid whom she imagines likely grew up to become an uneducated village hick. In order to save Mira from fulfilling her oath, Umi and Jessy agrees to accompany her back to her village and lure Otoy’s attention from her.

Mira, who has not visited her village for eight years, sees a lot of changes when she gets there. The road is no longer muddy and murky. The villagers now have an English-speaking only day and it also has Wi-Fi everywhere. To her knowledge, something must have happened here and her father tells her that the village’s development has been made possible because of Otoy, who has become a successful entrepreneur.

Otoy, as it turns out, has developed into a completely different person. From a perverted weird looking kid, he is now a handsome looking, soft speaking and caring man.

Jessy and Umi who initially do not have any plan to really fall for Otoy now find themselves mesmerized by his charm while Mira becomes even more resentful toward him as he represents everything that she is not.

Amid Mira’s search for the true purpose of her coming back to her village, she reunites with Inul (Titi Kamal), an old friend from her childhood days. Through a series of flashback scenes, the film takes us to learn how Mira and Inul were completely different when they were kids.

Mira was the one who wanted to stay in the village while Inul was the dreamer who wished she could build herself a career as an actress in Jakarta.

However, fate led them to different paths. As a result of Inul’s father’s hefty gambling problems, she was forced to marry the dealer in order to relieve her family from debt. Mira, on the other hand, went to college and eventually decided to leave the village.

Tragedies, like Inul’s story, are best told using a comedic approach and in Shy Shy Cat, Monty does so in telling a lot of tragedies.

From urbanization to feminism and legalized prostitution in the form of marriage, Monty has a lot to convey in Shy Shy Cat.

To a certain extent, Monty’s decision to use a comedic narrative in bringing up these issues seem to work pretty well.

The main casts, particularly Tika and Acha, surprisingly can be funny and entertaining considering the fact that they have spent a major part of their career playing in serious drama films.

Nirina, who actually has more experience playing in comedies, provides a good balance between humorous and dramatic acting to bridge the comical characters and stories with Fedi and Titi, who play the most serious characters in the film.

Nevertheless, for whatever reason, the comedic narratives seem to have been half-heartedly executed.

While they trigger giggles here and there, none are actually deep enough to have the audience in tears of laughter or weeping in sadness. They poke at social issues but do not dig deep enough to magically touch the viewer’s heart.

Perhaps it is because of a decision made to keep the film’s content “safe” amid the hyper sensitive Indonesian society that does not take lightly the slightest joke that poke satirical jabs at real life social ills, such as the absurdity of religious laws and the injustice of social order toward the community’s weakest.

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Shy Shy Cat
(Starvision, 102 minutes)

Directed by Monty Tiwa
Cast: Fedi Nuril, Acha Septriasa, Tika Bravani, Nirina Zubir, Titi Kamal

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