Every country’s got its bad guy stereotypes that often make it onto celluloid, but for Malaysia’s award-winning filmmaker Deepak Menon.
KUALA LUMPUR: Every country’s got its bad guy stereotypes that often make it onto celluloid, but for Malaysia’s award-winning filmmaker Deepak Menon, it’s high time ethnic Indians like himself were given a break.
“In some Malay films, they would stereotype an Indian ... doing dumb things. It disturbs me,” said the 28-year-old, whose films focus on the lives of ordinary Malaysians of Indian origin. “If I go into a shop to buy a pen, they think I want to steal it. That’s how bad the stereotype is,” he said.
Around 7% of Malaysia’s 26 million people are ethnic Indians, whose forefathers were brought to the Southeast Asian country as labourers by British colonial rulers.
Many in the community complain of racial discrimination, accusing the government of trying to wipe out their culture by imposing Islamic laws and demolishing Hindu temples.
Menon, who studied animation at a local university and grew up in an Indian dominated ghetto of Kuala Lumpur, said more could be done to make society colour-blind. “It’s not helping when you don’t have enough contact among the races. As long as you have a group of Indian guys in the car, you are up to no good. That’s the branding.”
Like his previous efforts, Menon’s latest film, Chalanggai (Dancing Bells), focuses on the challenges facing Indians such as lack of education, joblessness, dysfunctional family values and segregation. Set around Brickfields, a bustling Indian suburb in Kuala Lumpur, the story revolves around an 11-year-old Indian girl who aspires to be a dancer despite reservations by her mother.
Menon said the story was based on his own experiences growing up. By 18, he had lost several friends to motorcycle accidents, murders, suicides or drugs. Chalanggai’s modest $75,000 budget was partly funded by National Geographic. It won a special mention at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
Menon said he had several new projects lined up, but added that the government continued to discriminate against non-Malay films.
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