Ayat-Ayat Cinta

I finally got to watch the much awaited film in Indonesia, Ayat-Ayat Cinta. My school's technology consultant managed to get a copy from the master reel and the school decided to show the movie to all the students in the weekly movie night last Saturday. The school set up two projectors for the students and one separate LCD screen for the teachers. The film was adapted from the best-selling novel by Habiburrahman el-Shirazy, a well-known writer of "novel pembangun jiwa" (soul-building novel) aka Islamic romance novel.

The author is an Indonesian who did his undergraduate study in al-Azhar University in Cairo and the novel Ayat-Ayat Cinta revolves around the protagonist by the name of Fahri, who is an Indonesia student in--guess where?--al-Azhar University. My students, both boys and girls, have been ranting and raving about this book since I've been teaching here--not a surprise, considering that this is an Islamic boarding school--and I finally buckled down and read the novel last month. While I wouldn't go as far as to say that this is the best novel I've read but it's not that bad either. I can definitely see its appeal among my students and the Indonesian Muslim population at large. And I can always use the substance of the book to spark discussions in my class.

For example: I ask my girls if they think Fahri is an ideal type for a boyfriend/husband and all unanimously answer YESSS!! Then when I ask if they can actually find someone like Fahri in the real world, they answer "maybe yes, maybe no, Mister!" with most leaning toward "maybe no." With my boys, I ask if they think if someone like Fahri actually exists in the real world and they all unwaveringly say "Nooo!!" with one student actually says that only "1 in 10 million." Then, the fun question for the boys: If you are in Fahri's place who would you like to choose as your wife (only one is allowed)? And why? Fahri, by the way, is the Islamic superstud in the book who is being chased and swooned over by four drop-dead gorgeous women: Maria, his Christian Coptic neighbor who at the end became a Muslimah; Nurul, a fellow al-Azhar Indonesian student who is also the daughter of a famous kyai in East Java; Aisha, a wealthy German-Turkish-Palestinian student who later became Fahri's wife; and Noura, an Egyptian girl whose life was saved by Fahri but later stabbed him in the back for unrequited love. My boys were almost evenly divided between Maria and Aisha with smattering others favored Nurul for patriotic reasons, and not surprisingly, nobody picked poor Noura. This definitely makes for a lively discussion especially in the afternoon class when the students are barely awake. Ahh.. how I love toying with adolescent minds and the chaste fantasies of Islamic boarding school kids!

Anyway, I think the movie is disappointing, which is typical for virtually all movies that are adapted from books. But I think that the director can do so much better with the film especially with the kind of budget he's working from. When I read the book I can feel being transported to Cairo with all its craziness and humanity, enveloped in the hot swirling dust of the desert storm. I can also imagine walking through the hallowed musty hallways of the ancient al-Azhar University, haggling with the boisterous traders in the souk, and reveling in the cacophany of the city's hustle and bustle. But none of these are shown in the movie. The movie didn't do justice to the life in Cairo and its people and culture. Why even bother shooting in Cairo when not much of Cairo is shown in the movie? Also, the director and the writers took too much liberty in translating the book into the big screen, which is fine if it's done tastefully and with tact. I understand the need to "spice up" the story a notch or two for movie-goers but the director's effort at it comes off as clunky and disjointed, almost bordering on nonsensical.

My poor female students were so jealous that the boys got to see the movie last Saturday night, so I managed to get a copy of the movie and will show it to them this Friday afternoon. I don't know how fifty-plus students can manage to watch this movie on my tiny laptop but we'll figure out a way.