emembering a star: A man looks at photos of Benyamin Sueb showcased at the Bentara Budaya Jakarta cultural center in Jakarta. (Photo by A. Kurniawan Ulung)

The late Benyamin Sueb is not only a legend to Jakarta’s Betawi people, as he is one of the country’s greatest artists of all time and a legendary cultural icon.

Benyamin, as an artist, could do anything. He was an actor, singer, writer, director and producer.

Affectionately known as Bang Ben among his devoted fans, Benyamin would have celebrated his 80th birthday on March 5 this year. Nowadays, most probably know of the late comedian from the performance of actor Reza Rahadian in recent comedy flick Benyamin Biang Kerok (Benyamin the Troublemaker), which was a reimagining of a film by the same name in the 1970s.

Benyamin, who passed away at the age of 56 in 1995, cut his teeth as a multitalented artist. In the Indonesian film industry, he starred in 54 movies, including 10 films in which he was also the producer, director and scriptwriter.

His films were recently screened during an event called Nonton Bioskop: Putar Film Benyamin S (Watching Movies: The Screening of Benyamin S’ films) from March 22 to 24 at the Bentara Budaya Jakarta cultural center in Jakarta.

Two of them were Intan Berduri (Thorny Diamond) and Si Doel Anak Modern (Doel the Modern Man). He won Best Actor at the Indonesian Film Festival (FFI) twice in the 1970s for these films.

“Bang Ben is an extraordinary figure. As of today, there is no one like him,” State Film Company (PFN) president director and historian Abduh Aziz said in a discussion with Bina Nusantara film lecturer Ekky Imanjaya during the event.

As a musician, Benyamin had written over 300 songs, including hits “Hujan Grimis” (Drizzle) and “Nonton Bioskop” (Watching Movies), and released 46 studio albums starting in the 1950s.

His first band, the Melody Boys, performed big hits from foreign musicians, such as “Unchained Melody” and “Blue Moon”. After president Sukarno forbade Western music from being played in the country in the early 1960s, he played traditional Betawi music called gambang kromong with a band called Naga Mustika.

He had also made a living as a bus conductor before he rose to stardom as a movie star in the early 1970s. Benyamin’s films managed to draw the attention of moviegoers, especially ordinary people from the lower-middle class, because the roles he played represented their lives, according to Ekky.

“When we watch his films, we feel like we are watching ourselves. When we laugh, we are laughing at ourselves,” he said.  

Abduh agreed with Eki, saying it was Benyamin’s films that made the artist an icon for the Betawi people.

Abduh, who like Benyamin is of Betawi descent, said Benyamin’s movies did not just portray the life of Betawi society as the way it was. Most importantly, they tried to show that the stereotypes of the Betawi people being norak (tacky), bad-tempered, naive and disobedient were not accurate.

A large percentage of the Betawi people might be poor, but those identifying as part of the ethnic group have a strong sense of pride are not hesitant to speak out against authoritarianism — a characteristic that Benyamin shows in his performance as a driver named Pengki in the original Benyamin Biang Kerok film in 1972.  

“In the film, [Pengki] is always critical and suspicious of the authorities,” Abduh said.

Benyamin also implicitly delivered criticisms on social, political and cultural issues in the country, such as corruption, eviction and social inequality. He covered these issues using witty jokes to save him from the authoritarian New Order government.

Si Doel Anak Modern, for example, shows he hard life of the Betawi as the native people of Jakarta who are marginalized as the capital transitions into a modern city. Benyamin plays a jobless Betawi man who fights to find love.

“Most of Bang Ben’s films revolve around the marginalization of the Betawi people,” Abduh said.

“If we analyze his films, we will know that he was laughing at modernity. He laughed while questioning for whom the modernity was for.”

Abduh said he was sad that Betawi filmmakers did not follow in Benyamin’s footsteps when writing stories about the Betawi people. He said that after the death of the comedian, Betawi-themed films were funny but meaningless because they just aimed to meet market demands.

“Benyamin’s films were against stereotypes of the Betawi people. Nowadays, those stereotypes are instead being pushed in films about the Betawi,” he said.

To respect Benyamin, a street in his place of birth, Kemayoran, was named after him by the Jakarta administration, three months after he died of a heart attack in September 1995. Benyamin’s tomb is next to that of his mentor and friend, Bing Slamet, another legendary singer and comedian who passed away in 1974.

In September of last year, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan inaugurated Benyamin Sueb Park, also known as the Betawi Cultural Center, in Jatinegara, East Java. The park is home to hundreds of historical photos, paintings, personal attire, movie posters, cassette tapes and other memorabilia that belonged to the late icon.

For Abduh, such tribute matters; however, what is more important is the way in which Benyamin’s films are celebrated: by screening them more often, especially in schools.

“Benyamin taught us that criticism is not necessarily delivered in a rough way. It can be done with humor. Comedy can soften our hearts,” he said.