5 Reasons To Look Forward To Osman Ali’s ‘Langit Cinta’!
It’s fascinating how Osman Ali has managed to take on a diverse range of genres but still come up with phenomenal successes at the Malaysian box office. His Ombak Rindu for example is one of Malaysia’s all-time top five highest-grossing films, holding the #4 position as of last month.
His last feature was Jwanita, a gory horror film we reviewed which hit the RM1.5 million mark at the box office, in a year with very few million-making films. Upcoming release Sinaran meanwhile opens on 26 November and marks his third release this year once you also take into account Pilot Cafe earlier in April.
Prolific? Sure seems like it.
But guess what fellas, Osman Ali actually has one more completed film in the vault waiting to be unleashed, and it’ll be out next January. This is Langit Cinta, starring Fazura and Keith Foo.
The movie tells the story of Alif Zulkarnain (Keith Foo) who comes from a wealthy family and has a major change in perspective after crossing paths with an island girl named Khadijah (Fazura) who he falls in love with despite the obstacles. Through their journey, Aliff discovers meaning in his life and finds the joy of living in moderation and simplicity.
Originally scheduled for a late 2015 release, the movie was pushed back to early 2016 and we consider this is a pretty smart move for two big reasons.
Fazura’s win at Festival Filem Malaysia ke-27 and Keith Foo’s rising star will help sell the film, while Polis Evo‘s success must have taught Astro Shaw more lessons in mass promotion and publicity. Watch out local cinemas, this could potentially be bigger than Ombak Rindu.
In any case, this is us convincing you to go out and shell RM15 when the time comes. We present to you our five reasons to catch Langit Cinta.
1. A whole new side to Fazura
Let’s face it, Fazura is an on-screen goddess. But more often than not, she’s been type-casted as the giddy urban girl — Pisau Cukur, Manisnya Cinta Di Cappadocia and Gol dan Gincu all had her do variations of the same woman.
In Langit Cinta, she plays a kampung girl. No heavy make up and designer clothes; no Fazura in Louboutin heels. But once you take into account Fazura’s diversity of roles in the past few years (e.g. playing an evil spirit in Shamyl Othman‘s excellent Kami Histeria) we’re quite convinced she’s in the game for the craft, not just the glamour.
Aside from merely being a girl from the countryside, Langit Cinta protagonist Khadijah is also expecting a child. It’s something we’ve definitely never seen before from Fazura, who mentioned in an interview with Utusan that the role was a big step outside her comfort zone.
2. There’s going to be a novel adaptation of the film!
Yes, we know, shouldn’t films be adapted from novels? That’s usually the case!
This time round, Osman Ali breaks the norm by completely turning the table around. Osman engaged Alaf21 Sdn Bhd author Damya Hanna (Bicara Hati, Bulan Madu Yarra Valley) to write a novel based on the film.
Damya mentioned in an interview with Sinar Harian that writing Langit Cinta was challenging as she had to base her novel off the film’s script — a completely different process for the author who has always relied on imagination.
She then added that she also went on set to understand the story better, and we no longer sympathised with Damya because she got to be on the set of Langit Cinta with Fazura and Keith Foo.
3. Keith Foo stars!
We’ve recently seen Keith in Girlfriend Kontrak (make sure to read our review)! After an acting stint in Indonesia, this Chinese-Indian actor scored some major roles on local TV (Jodoh Itu Milik Kita, Dia… Isteri Luar Biasa) before making his debut as a lead actor on the silver screen with Girlfriend Kontrak.
Potentially another future victim of typecasting, this is Keith’s second role as a wealthy heartthrob. His character in Langit Cinta doesn’t sound like the most original but here’s to hoping Osman Ali has some tricks up his sleeve.
Perhaps most of all, who isn’t looking forward to seeing some chemistry between him and Fazura?
4. Rediscover Langkawi
Aside from a satisfactory storyline, a breathtaking cinematography was also on Osman’s wish list. Hence, Langit Cinta was shot in one of Langkawi’s most beautiful islands, Pulau Tuba.
But upon arrival, the team were unable to find the right house to use in the film. Unperturbed, they built a new house within three weeks to cater to Osman’s imagination. Osman acknowledged in Kosmo! that though people might deem it an unnecessary and extravagant move, details like these have the power to further connect audiences to the film.
Judging from on-set pictures we’ve seen on its cast member’s social media accounts, Langit Cinta has potential to win in cinematography — it has all the right ingredients.
5. Names And Numbers
As if Fazura alone wasn’t enough to sell the film, Astro Shaw also roped some other stars.
Look forward to Ogy Ahmad Daud for some acting chops, Farid Kamil for an alternative hearththrob if Keith doesn’t float your boat, and Dian P. Ramlee, daughter of the legendary musician. And if that’s still not enough, there’ll also be Siti Saleha, Norman Damanhuri, Zaidi Omar and Jalaluddin Hassan.
Kosmo! reported that Langit Cinta swallowed an RM2 million budget — Polis Evo and all its explosives scenes cost RM2.4 million — so it’ll need to make a fair bit more than RM4 million in order to be a profitable venture.
Given that it’s a delayed, huge release from Astro Shaw however, expect high visibility (these guys save so much on advertising) and an outstanding performance at the box office.
Written by Deric Ect and Keanu Azman.
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