TEKAN MINYAK is a 1-hour, 13-episode drama series about 5 women in the midst of middle age and post-menopause. The drama-series stars Ariati Tyeb Papar (Aini), Junaidah Eksan (Suriati), Mariana Yati (Zuraidah), Nadiah Ali (Nadia) and Rosita Hussin (Rahimah). The debut episode began telecast on Mediacorp's SURIA channel on 4 July 2018 at 9.30pm.
It would be a challenge for me to tackle this drama series that looks into the lives of 5 adult women. Certainly it would not be easy to track into the woman's psyche and treat the respective issues respectfully.
Imaging & Styling
It turned out to be a breeze because the 5 lead actresses and I had many discussions on the issues at hand. We discussed like adults and spoke openly about the script, especially on the difficult themes. On hindsight, I don't think I would be able to handle the series if this was handed to me 10-15 years ago. Tekan Minyak is an adult drama series and I don't think I would have the maturity to navigate its themes. What I like about the series is that it handled much of the issues faced daily by many contemporary Malay families head-on, ie adultery, autism, the cougar, internet bully, stalking, breadwinner, infertility, etc.
Further, many of the cast members and I go a long way. I have worked with many of them in the past. I directed and watched them develop as an actor. Many of them have also watched my style in various drama genres. Thus, it's a very comfortable working relationship from Day 1.
Yet the cast still needed my guidance on set and I need their hindsights so that I would not go overboard with realism. It may be easy to assume that I may have an easy job on-set because of the A-list casting, thus I can lepak one corner. They may not need much guidance when it comes to performance and technicalities, but I still need to point out should they have gone off-character (yes I see the whole series character and narrative arc) or off-blocking. Worst, some actors may tend go too much acting unconsciously. I am one for the actor who wants to explore and go off-tangent and make the character their own but they still need to be guided. This applies to all-level actors, ie experienced or newbies.
Behind-the-scene
I think the biggest challenge for me directing this series was having to work through the fasting month of Ramadan. Many of the challenging scenes were filmed during the fasting month. In fact sometime during the 3-months plus principal filming, I realised I have forgotten how it feels like to be on-set and directing all 13-episodes. Somehow my health condition (from 2017) took a toll. I wasn't feeling too well physically towards the end of the filming. The joints were feeling rather tight (more of that on another blog).
It was the first time I worked with many technical crew, one of them is Mr Gopal, the director of photography. He was from India and had worked on many film sets there. I was channeling my inner Bollywood/Kollywood through much of the series and I think Mr Gopal ensured we achieved that together 😉
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12
Episode 13
Would there be a second season?
