AIR MATA DI KUALA LUMPUR (TEARS IN KUALA LUMPUR)
By Ridhwan Saidi
About the Film
“Air Mata di Kuala Lumpur” was the last song written by P. Ramlee, the renowned actor, director, singer and composer who made over 60 films in Singapore and Malaysia from the 1950s to the 1970s. He had intended this song for a film with the same title, but passed away before the film was made. It would have been the Malay star’s first colour film.
By choosing to name his film after P. Ramlee’s unfinished one, Ridhwan Saidi gestures to an absence, but also seeks to redeem what could have been with a vision of what is. In Saidi’s film, present-day Kuala Lumpur is an ever-evolving city with inhabitants who find meaning in artistic endeavour, while caught up between loss and longing. In the soundtrack and mise-en-scene, fragments from P. Ramlee’s body of work punctuate this homage to his enduring legacy.
The narrative is made up of a series of events associated with two women. Tze, a car workshop owner grappling with the disappearance of her husband, seeks solace in a performance workshop. Jay, a photographer preparing for an exhibition, converses with strangers in the city to escape from the familiar. As their paths converge, they find a serendipitous connection that changes their personal trajectories.
The filmmaker Ridhwan Saidi will be in attendance for a post-screening dialogue.
Related Exhibition
This programme is conceived in conjunction with the exhibition, Singapore Stories: Pathways and Detours in Art, which presents a layered and ever-changing story of Singapore’s art history. Newly revamped, this exhibition features excerpts from several films by P. Ramlee, like Penarek becha (1955), Pendekar bujang lapok (1959), and Ibu mertua-ku (1962).
It also showcases a new commission—Four Malay Stories Redux (2025) by Singapore artist Ming Wong. This redux version re-stages footage from Wong’s 2005 work and excerpts from the P. Ramlee films that have inspired it, revealing the fissures between the “original” and the “remake”.
Related Activities
Ahead of the screening, join curator Teo Hui Min for a walkthrough of Gallery 1 in Singapore Stories, where excerpts from P. Ramlee’s films are on view.
Sat, 6 Sep 2025, 1pm
Conducted before the film screening
Registration required; tour is complimentary for film screening ticket holders only.
The director Ridhwan Saidi, and co-producers Nurul Aizam and Tan Cher Kian, will be in attendance for a post-screening dialogue.
Included with your film screening ticket
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