Shanjhey Kumar Perumal

Movies have no languages.  Malaysian director Shanjhey Kumar Perumal who has directed the critical hit movie Jagat that strong contender at the award show Malaysian Film Festival that will take place in this Saturday  proves  that when he picked ten of his all time favourite movies. Below the full story in theSun today .  

Headline: More than Words  
By Bissme S 

Shanhey Kumar Perumal 

When this year’s nominations for the Malaysian Film Festival (FFM) were announced, the list sparked a controversy. The FFM jury had created three new subcategories for the major awards for director, screenplay and picture. It had separated nominees into best non-Bahasa Malaysia nominees, and best Bahasa Malaysia nominees, ostensibly because some films did not contain at least 70% of their dialogue in the national language. 
This new ruling seemed to target several popular films, such as Jagat, Ola Bola and The Kid from the Big Apple. The controversy was finally resolved when the jury decided to do away with the divisive new categories, and instead add a category for best picture in the national language. 
Director Shanjhey Kumar Perumal’s film Jagat is a strong contender, with nine nods. Shanjhey’s debut film set in the 1980s tells the story of an ethnic Indian teen who gets involved in gangsterism. 
Shanjhey  insisted: “I love the national language. But when it comes to film, language is never that important. The audience goes for the content and the story.” 
We asked Shanjhey to give his 10 best films in any language and why he chose them. 

*Satya / Truth (India; 1998) 

Directed by Ram Gopal Varma, this film traces how a man turns to a life of violence and joins the criminal underworld. 
“The production team breaks away from the usual [Bollywood] formulas ... and presented a gangster movie with social realism. I applaud them for taking risks.” 
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*Goodfellas (USA; 1990) 

Directed by Martin Scorsese, this biographical film narrates the rise and fall of a Mafia gangster. 
“I love the way Martin Scorsese directed his films. He’s very particular about details – from the dialogue to the way his actors get under the skin of their characters.” 
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*City of God (Brazil; 2002) 

Directed by Fernando Meirelles, it tells the story of two boys growing up in a violent neighbourhood and taking different paths in life – one becomes a photographer and the other a drug lord. 
“I could relate to this movie. I [grew] up in a poor neighbourhood in Parit Buntar (Perak). I wanted to be a gangster myself, [but] quickly realised my mistake and concentrated on my studies instead.” 
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*Election Parts 1 & 2 (Hong Kong; 2005 and 2006) 

Directed by Johnnie To, it is about two rival gang leaders who go to war to control the triads, set against the backdrop of the 1997 handover to China. 
“The director has cleverly shown how a change in the political landscape also changes the landscape of the underworld.” 

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*Jogho (Malaysia; 1997) 

Directed by U-Wei, this story of murder and revenge is set among the Patani Malay community of Southern Thailand. 
“The director [depicts] the life of a minority group and uses their dialect to convey the story. He went for realism and that is why I like it. 
“In Jagat, I showed the [problems faced by the] minority community of my country.” 

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*Once Upon a Time in America (USA-Italy; 1984) 

Directed by Sergio Leone, it chronicles the lives of several youths from the ghetto who rise to prominence in the world of organised crime. 
“I love the way the director shows the changing scenarios of the criminal world for four decades from the 1920s to the 1960s.” 
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*Red Sorghum (China; 1987) 

Directed by Zhang Yimou, the film tells the story of a boy who reminisces about his grandmother who inherited a winery and fought the Japanese to save it. 
“The visuals really capture my imagination and the director has successful blended culture into the film.” 
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*Stalker (Russia; 1979) 
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, this 1979 science fiction art film is about three individuals who explore a room in a guarded city where dreams come true. 
“The movie beautifully combines spiritualism, science and philosophy with strong visuals.” 
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*2001: A Space Odyssey (USA-UK; 1968) 

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this film looks at the evolution of the human race through the centuries – from a tribe of manapes to a man in space. 
“[It] combines spiritualism, philosophy and strong visuals brilliantly. The movie could be interpreted in many ways and had sparked some interesting discussions.” 
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*Suna no Onna / Woman in the Dunes (Japan; 1964) 

Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, this surreal Japanese film centres on a schoolteacher who finds himself trapped in a village and told to marry a woman who lives inside a sandpit. 
“This movie is a perfect fusion of image, sound and eroticism.”
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