INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

MALAYSIAN CINEMA

(FDC411)

SOCIAL ISSUES IN

MALAYSIAN TAMIL CINEMA

(JAGAT)

PREPARED BY:

NURUL AINAA BINTI MANSOR

2018250366

GROUP:

BA2475B

PREPARED FOR:

SIR AZRI

SEMESTER V 2020
 ACKNOWLEDGE

First, I would like to extend our sincere thanks to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UITM)
Campus Puncak Alam, Selangor for granting me a permission to carry out Malaysian Cinema
(FDC411) assignment.

I would like to thank our Sir Azri for give me the opportunity to undergo this Malaysian
Cinema. He also gives me their guidance and support. He helped all time when I am in
needed and he gave the right direction toward completion of assignment. In addition, I would
like to thank him for all the support, time, and willingness on helping me in facing difficulty
and misunderstanding that occur during the process in finishing this project’s proposal. All
the advices and knowledge given by my lecturer could be very useful in the future.

Lastly, I would like to thank our parents on their cooperation. Willingness in given
motivating and supporting us in completing our assignment are very meaningful for me.
Apart from that, I would like to thank our classmates for giving a cooperation and advices. I
completely thank to all people that involve either directly or indirectly during the process of
completing the tasks
 TABLE OF CONTENT

NO. CONTENT PAGE

1. ACKNOWLEDGE 3

2. TABLE OF CONTENT 4

3. SINOPSIS 5

4. INTRODUCTION 6

5. TYPES OF GROUP IN SOCIAL ISSUES 7-13

6. CONCLUSION 14

7. REFERENCES 15

SINOPSIS
Jagat is director Shanjhey Kumar Perumal’s debut feature film, set in the early 1990s of
Malaysia. In the film, Appoy, a rebellious schoolboy, prefers to watch gangster flicks on TV
and engage in mischief rather than memorise his multiplication tables. Mildly resentful of his
strict father, Maniam, and inevitably attracted to the criminal lifestyle led by his uncles,
Appoy neglects his studies, while his uncle Bala tries to guide and advise the boy. Appoy
greatly glamourises and admires the gangster life without fully realising its implications, or
the difficult world his uncles experience by being a part of such a dangerous lifestyle. Appoy
eventually witnesses Bala’s sudden death by drug overdose an incident that tilts Appoy
further off the path. Jagat sheds light on the plight of Malaysian Indians living in the rural
pockets of society, with limited access to education and job opportunities.

The characters are constantly surrounded by the harsh, austere landscape of a rural
squatter compound a terrain of unforgiving violence and shady dealings that overwhelms
Maniam’s stern yet well-meaning intentions to steer Appoy towards a better future.
Maniam’s tough-love approach to parenting further repels Appoy away from pursuing a
virtuous way of life, into the waiting arms of lawlessness and depravity, a lifestyle that
appears to be a more relenting alternative to spending time in school and being disciplined.
Appoy’s impressionability is a double-edged sword that eventually leads to his own
unbecoming: his potential to be shaped into a righteous, law-abiding individual is hindered by
his constant exposure to the social ills prevalent in his environment.

Appoy is not a bad person, merely another casualty of a limited education system, a
struggling family unit and a society that disregards a young boy from the ghetto like him.
While this film does not justify the choice of being a gangster, it paints youths who fall into
this life in a softer light they’re people just like us, who made complex decisions and fell
through the cracks of a vicious cycle of moral corruption, with no support structure to tell
them otherwise.
INTRODUCTION

A social issue is an issue that relates to society's perception of people's personal lives.
Different societies have different perceptions and what may be "normal" behaviour in one
society may be a significant social issue in another society. Social issues are distinguished
from economic issues. Some issues have both social and economic aspects, such as
immigration. There are also issues that do not fall into either category, such as wars. Thomas
Paine, in Rights of Man and Common Sense, addresses man's duty to "allow the same rights
to others as we allow ourselves". The failure to do so causes the birth of a social issue.

Social problems are the general factors that affect and damage society. Also known as
social issues sometimes. A social problem is normally a term used to describe problems with
a particular area or group of people in the world. Social problems often involve problems that
affect the real world. It also affects how people react to certain situations.

For example, of social issue:

 Anti-social behaviours  Stress

 Poverty  Rape
 Drug abuse  Early pregnancy
 Prostitution  Female genital mutilation
 Racial discrimination  Animal abuse
 Alcohol abuse  The shortage of schools
 Economic Deprivation  The lack of infrastructure
 Political Corruption  Bullying
 Unemployment  Obesity
 Sexual abuse  High crime rate
 TYPES OF GROUP IN SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Family
 Appoy’ Mother- does not take action on her family issues by letting his
husband
beating their son
 Appoys Father – using authoritarian style of parenting to his son’s education.
 Appoys Uncles – involved with drug and gangster.

2. Community
 People who involved in gangster’s group.
 People who involved in drug’s business.
 People who ignore environment issues.
3. Peers
 Appoy’s friends who show bad attitude and influence Appoy to smoke.

4. School
 Friends who bullying Appoy because they feel superior and because his uncle
is a gangster.
 Techers who did not teach well and directly punish Appoy for his attitude.
FAMILY

1. Appoy is a good boy and very creative person. His dream is to be like Michael
Jackson. One day, his school has a festival and there is competition for the creative
costume. He is so excited for the competition and quickly made an awesome costume
(minutes 11:06). Before the day his father wanted the receipt back, his father asked
Appoy to keep the account card safe (minutes 2:01), Appoy lost the receipt as he
could not remember where he put the account card. Suddenly, his father want the
account card and he get mad at Appoy because he forgets where the account card was
kept (minutes 16:30). Then, after seeing the costume, he was so angry and rip off the
costume (minutes 18:12). Appoy was very sad and this turn into depress and made
him not interesting with school. In this situation, his father should not act like that and
should have a proper communication rather than express his anger.

2. His father always gets furious at her son when seeing his son doing something that
wasting time. He abuses his son by hitting Appoy so sudden without questioning first
rather than give nicely advise (minutes 41:08). By doing that, Appoy always feel
 stress and anger towards his father. This is one of the causing factors that leads Appoy
to be involved with a bad peer when he did not believe on his parents anymore.

3. Once, Appoy hang out with his friends, even his friend smoking, he never wants to
try, but after his father seeing him together with them, he directly gets hit from her
father (minutes 41:08). In this situation, his father should ask him either his smoking
or not and give good advice that Appoy should not friends anymore because of their
attitude. This will cause the kid did not understand that his action is wrong and make
them made false judgement about his parents.

4. One day, his uncle friend asks Appoy to accompany him to a restaurant after seeing
him being bully at the roadside. At that place, his uncle beat one guy and being
respect with others (minutes 46:49), in this situation, his uncle just shown the bad
attitude and make him feel that beat somebody will get respect people around him and
turn him to be a bad guy.
COMMUNITY

1. In this film, Appoy’s uncle who does involve with gangster’s job which is a car pull
job. One day his uncle gets a customer with a gun (minutes 16:42). But community
does not care even in public. This shown that people do not apply humanity act to
create a healthy surrounding and just been neglective and ignore environment issues
happen around them. This community is full of bad people which crime usually take
place.

2. People who is in a poverty situation and wants to be rich by using easy way to get
money. Appoy’s uncle want to be rich and respect with easier way. One day, there are
man who offered him a gangster job. This job made him get money and respect. In
this situation, his uncle quickly agreed without knowing he will be exposed to bad
consequences (minutes 19:31).
3. One day, Appoy uncle friend’s get into a fight with his uncle, and there are person
who stir up them this made his friend to stab back his uncle by joining the others
gangster group who selling drugs (minutes 51:40). This have made his other uncle,
Bala to involved in taking drugs cause him dead of drug overdose.
SCHOOL

1. The first situation when Appoy getting marks for her painting. He got C on his
painting and asked his teacher for a reason. His teacher just teasing the kid rather than
explaining the reason of getting low mark in a nice way to the kid. This will cause the
kid to not aware and understand his fault (minutes 14:19). Besides, the kid will be
feeling down and upset because he is expecting a good mark from his work. Teachers
should use a better way to advice their student for their understanding in the future.

2. Appoy’s teacher who teach mathematics was scolding Appoy for his bad memory in
remember the multiple and humiliated him in front of his friends (minutes 22:11).
This causes Appoy to not respect with his teacher.
 3. Friends who always bullying the weak people, in this film, Appoy always get bully
with his friends for many reasons. This kind of attitude turns Appoy to bully people
because he thought when beat someone (minutes 44:29), people will respect him same
as his uncle.

PEER

1. Friends who smoke. Appoy have friends with people who involved in smoking
even their age is not qualify to smoke. This will influence Appoy to try smoking.
Appoy finally involved in smoking at the end of this movie (minutes 1:12:09).
 CONCLUSION

Social problem is a situation undesirable. The first cause of any social problem is the
social environment. As we know, a person is neither good nor bad by birth. It is the
environment which makes him/her what he/she is. A family also plays an important role in
social problems. When a family member smokes, drinks and quarrels with each other, which
gives the bad impression to the children. So, good behaviour and proper guidance should be
given to the children.

Here, every newspaper is filled with stories about undesirable social conditions. For
examples include crime, violence, drug abuse, and environmental problems. Such social
problems can be found at the local, state, national and international levels. Some social
problems prevalent in our community are Smoking, drinking alcohol, theft, drug addiction,
etc is the social problems which are existing in our society. Poverty, illiteracy,
unemployment, population growth, etc also the other causes of social problems.

If person's necessities are not fulfilled, then it is may cause committing crimes to fulfil
their necessities. Uneducated people cannot differentiate between right and wrong so they
may engage in wrong acts. People may engage in anti-social activities like theft, robbery, etc
because of unemployment they are not able to fulfil their needs. Here, population growth is
also a responsible factor for social problems. Due to the growth of population Annual birth-
rate of our country is high, but economic development is not increasing satisfactorily. In our
country many people are unemployed due to the lack of job which causes a social crime.
 REFERENCES

definitions.net. (2001-2020). Definitions for social issues. Retrieved from defintions.net:

https://www.definitions.net/definition/social
Ismail, N. (2018). Who is Jagat. Retrieved from quod.lib.umich.edu:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/13761232.0042.308/--who-is-jagat?rgn=main;view=fulltext
kullabs. (2019). Causes and Solution of Social problems. Retrieved from Kullabs.com:
https://kullabs.com/grade-6/social-6/social-problems-and-solutions-1/causes-and-solution-of-
social-problems
Miller-Wilson, K. (2018). Common Examples of Social Issues. Retrieved from
examples.yours,dictionary: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/common-examples-of-
social-issues.html