Though he gave up teaching classical guitar some years ago, film director Harry Dagoe is still heavily influenced by music. His first feature film, ‘Pachinko and Everyone’s Happy’, shot entirely in Japan, was hailed a masterpiece by critics. He’s gone on to make two more feature films, the internationally acclaimed ‘Love Potpourri’ and his latest, a musical titled ‘Melodi’.

Melodi
‘The title of my latest film. It’s a very light children’s musical I wrote out of concern for the children in Indonesia; the education that they have, the current social and economic situation that they’re in, and the kind of exposure that they get. It worries me. I’m afraid that it’ll make them develop some very unhealthy habits, so I felt the urge to make this film. The point is not to mock or to preach to anyone but I guess more to embrace them. I decided to write a musical as I think children are colourful and, in general, very musical.

The role of music
Well, I guess it really depends on the concept of the film. When we hear music in a scene, it leads us to a certain mood and reveals information, and when we don’t hear music, we’re given the freedom to interpret a scene. So sometimes music can limit our mindset and kill our intelligence as a film watchers. But in other films, say a musical, music can be the heart and soul. Both are powerful mediums and can either support or weaken each other, and when the timing and the concept is right, the mixture of both elements can create an unbelievable effect. That’s the magic of film and music for me.

107 Steps
It’s kind of hard to say what my favourite musical is, but like everybody else in the world, I also liked ‘The Sound of Music’ (Robert Wise, 1965) when I was I child. I enjoyed it very much and when I think about it now, it’s actually
quite feminine. The modern musical that I love is ‘Dancer in the Dark’ (Lars von Trier, 2000). It hit me in the guts and made me realise that musicals can actually be very deep. I remember one scene from it, where the prison guards took Bjork to the execution chamber and through the hallway she counted her steps and sang that song. The performance was so powerful and gut-wrenching that I cried like I never cried before. It affected me to
the core. Before that, I thought of musicals as being purely for entertainment, but after seeing that movie, it tore down some walls and amazed me with the possibilities of the genre.

Bollywood
As musicals, they don’t make any sense at all to me (laughs). I’ve seen some and I never understand them. Their musical numbers are sparked by some weird emotions. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about it; when they start singing, they sing without a reason, and they all cry when they’re happy or sad. It’s absurd. The music scenes don’t really blend in or add anything to the story, and no matter how extraordinary the musical performance is, say like in the finale of ‘Om Shanti Om’ (Farah Khan, 2007) where all the living
legends of Bollywood performed in one musical number, it doesn’t mean anything to me but huge production value and a big waste of talent. They got five stars for production values but concept-wise, it feels kinds of mindless. I’m not saying that all Bollywood films are bad, they just don’t work for me.

Dangdut Musical
I like percussion and one of my obsessions is to develop a dangdut musical. I kind of did it in ‘Melodi’, in a scene where they start singing a half pop and half dangdut song in an old, almost abandoned theme park, but that’s just a hint of it. Maybe one day I’ll make a full dangdut musical, that’s one of my wishes. I think it’s exotic and the rhythms are very lively. Even though I grew up with Western rock music like, yes, Led Zeppelin and Jim Reeves, dangdut is still something that can stir up feelings within me every time I hear it. Well, not all of it of course, mostly the ones by Rhoma Irama (arguably the Indonesian Elvis or Fred Astaire, though he mostly kicked some ass instead of dancing in his musicals) especially the classic one called ‘Begadang’ (Staying Late). When I play that song – I have it on vinyl – and with the right settings, it sounds really magnetic and powerful. It intrigues me. To capture that kind of feeling in a musical, to rejuvenate the genre, would be a
dream come true. So maybe, someday…

Gilar Di Aria