Gubra is a Malaysian
movie which was released in 2006 as the sequel to Sepet by Yasmin
Ahmad. It was shot in 14 days in Ipoh
,
Malaysia. It is followed by
Mukhsin.
Name
Gubra gets its title from the word
gubra, a word in the local
Penang
or Kedah
variant of
Malay used mainly used by the
mamak community. The
word means "worry". For overseas distribution, it was marketed as
"Anxiety".
Synopsis
The story plot of
Gubra is set a few years after Orked's
romance with Jason, where she is married to Ariff, a man who is
very much older than her. Early one morning, when she was fooling
around with Ariff in the bathroom, her mother Mak Inom called her
and said, "Orked, come now! We're losing your abah
(father in
Malay)!" Apparently, Orked's father, Pak Atan, had diabetic
complications and the whole family, with their maid, Kak Yam, and
chauffeur, Anuar, inclusive, frantically rushed him to the
hospital.
At the hospital, Orked incidentally meets Alan, the elder brother
of Jason, who recognized her from the photos that Jason and Orked
took together during their rendezvous. Alan's father was also
hospitalized due to a broken leg after his mother pushed him down
the doorstep in annoyance. Alan was divorced from his Singaporean
wife in this story and had his six-year-old daughter in his
custody. In the midst of the 'reunion', Kak Yam got romantically
involved with one of the hospital's male nurses, while Orked
discovered, again (as it was not the first time since Orked
mentioned, "You don't have to worry about breaking up our marriage,
it's on the rocks anyway."), that Ariff had been seeing another
lady, Latifah, behind her back. She moved back to her family home
and had Alan bring her to his house where she tearfully retrieved
momento items of her days with Jason, including photos and several
Jason's Chinese poetry books, which Alan had kept away secretly for
fear that his mother will secure them tightly in remembrance of her
deceased son.
On a separate side of the story, Temah (full name: Fatimah Zakaria)
is a Malay-Muslim lady who, unfortunately not well-versed in the
Quran, works as a prostitute, together with a sidekick, Kiah.
Despite her occupation, she is very fond and caring of her
suspectedly born-out-of-wedlock son, Shahrin, whom she sends to
religiously-rooted friend, Mas' house, for Quranic lessons under
Mas' son, Adam's religious teacher. Mas' husband is a muezzin who
also shares a neighbourly and friendly bond with Temah. He even
helped to retrieve Temah's wallet when it was robbed from her by a
man, suspectedly her former boyfriend who caused her to be pregnant
with Shahrin, who might be in a frantic search of money to settle
his gambling debts with loan sharks. Meanwhile, Temah went for
blood tests at a polyclinic and discovered that she had contracted
the HIV virus. Regretfully, she requested Mas to teach her the
Quran, who also guided her back to the path and aided her to
perform her prayers.
The finale of the story sees Alan's parents reconciling after years
of quarrels and fights by praying together before a Chinese altar
and Alan and his daughter performing their solemn vows in a church.
At the end of the credits, Orked was seen snuggling beside a
topless Jason. Both wore wedding rings.
Cryptics
- Shahrin related to Temah how he had dreamt of her sitting on a
swing crying. This revealed that Shahrin had somehow foreshadowed
the scene where Temah was sitting on a swing pouring out her sorrow
of having contracting HIV to Mas and Kiah.
- During Alan's drive with Orked to find a nice place to have
breakfast, their conversation contained lines expressing the beauty
of Malaysia's variety of cultures and races, but lacked sincere
appreciation from the Government, as portrayed by the line "...
it's like loving someone who doesn't love you back".
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