Sang Pemimpi is a film adapted from a novel of the same name (written by Andrea Hirata). It is also a sequel to the previous highly successful Laskar Pelangi, which was watched by more than four million viewers, recorded as the best-selling Indonesian film of all time, at that time. The difference, in the sequel this time, the main characters have become teenagers.
The central line of the story is, of course, the dreams, dreams of Belitung children who aspire to study in Jakarta and get a scholarship to France. Ideals that are not easily achieved for Ikal and Arai especially seeing their socio and cultural conditions, not to mention the influence of Malay ‘teaching’ which is said to look cynically towards dreams that are too high, and accept the reality to be realistic. Also, after that, Arai and Ikal were assisted by his best friend Jimbron who continued to struggle to realize their dreams amid trials and bitter realities in their lives until they later achieved what they dreamed about, herein lies the Dreamer’s inspiration offered by talented young director Riri Riza.
Starting from an adult Ikal played by Lukman Sardi who goes about his daily life as a postal employee in the city of Bogor and then flashbacks to the 1980s when Ikal lived his teenage life, a time when he had big dreams. This time the film Sang Pemimpi takes a lot of locations in Manggar in contrast to the previous sequel which tells of his childhood while in Gantong. Mira Lesmana, as the producer of this film, claimed to have spent no less than 11 billion to produce it.
Once again, Riri Riza is required to satisfy the wishes of readers of the novel The Dreamer in visualizing it on the big screen. Filmmakers compromised quite a lot like the name of the characterization, a Malay sailor named Mualim who changed to become Rokib. The scene of Zakiah Nurmala who waved Arai’s departure to Jakarta seemed to blurt out the relationship between the two who had a love that was in line, even though until the next sequel in Edensor’s book, Arai’s love was still unrequited because Zakiah had not broken his heart towards Arai. Another scene is compromised, especially when Ikal is angry at Jimbron who keeps blabbering about horses.
In his novel, Ikal apologizes to Jimbron, but in the film, it looks the opposite, and this moment is used to be the climax point of Ikal in his desperation to pursue his goals. Unfortunately, the depiction of Ikal dramatization is too long here, reducing the tempo of the film. On the contrary, when Ikal and Arai’s adult characters were told, the storyline was packaged in a fast pace to become anti-climax when their goals were reached (when Arai and Ikal finally got a scholarship to get their master’s degree). Moreover, the audience must first adapt to a new character, Arai’s adult figure, in contrast to Lukman Sardi, as Ikal who was introduced in the previous sequel and the beginning of the film’s story.
Nazril Ilham aka Ariel, a vocalist of one of the number one bands that act as Arai is an essential character in the story. After Arai’s teenage role is played by a new actor who is “clean” from the previous inherent image so that the character’s incarnation becomes real without tension, no wonder when the adult Arai character played by Ariel to the audience will seem difficult to judge as Arai, not his presence as Ariel, especially considering his acting is not optimal and stiff plus a portion of the scene is not much. According to Mira, Ariel was chosen because she has the same facial lines on the transformation of the small Arai and young Arai characters, besides, of course, increasing the selling value of this film. After all, Ariel is one of today’s teen idols.
Acting figures who play characters are arguably just right, aside from Mathias Muchus who played the quiet father Ikal also Landung Simatupang as Pak Mustar. Arai Adolescent figure played by Rendy Ahmad was able to be played very nicely as if the character of Arai teenager jumped out of the book and played a vital role in the film. The most attention-grabbing of course is the street musician, played by Jay Widjajanto, who plays a role in an excellent entertaining portion, especially filmmakers give a special “place” to this character who only is making eye contact on the camera, to the audience—affirming its distinctive presence as a figure who is not bound by the socio-cultural environment of the community. As the treasure of a Malay man, a saviour of Arai’s teenage love story.
There are some mistakes in the film, such as the presence of luxury cars that are not in accordance with its era. When they arrived in Bogor, the shadow of Avanza cars was seen on the highway, and when Ikal finished registering at the European Union building, Teranno and Taruna cars were seen, even though the setting was in the 90s. However, we should be proud of the existence of Indonesian films which have good quality values both morally and aesthetically
Andrei Budiman
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