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BERNARD Chauly, the acclaimed director of Gol & Gincu, Goodbye Boys and Pisau Cukur and other well-known tele-movies and television series, talks to Sharmila Valli Narayanan about the presence of strong women in his work, what he aims for as a director and the importance of finding balance in life.
LOCAL moviegoers owe a debt of gratitude to the seniors at the Communications Department of University Sains Malaysia (USM). For they are the ones who finally convinced the `freshie' Bernard Chauly to stay in that department and not move to the Architecture Department as he originally wanted to. Thanks to them, Chauly not only stayed on but went on to become the top student in his course. He also furthered his education with a scholarship from the British High Commission earning an MA with distinction from Goldsmith College, London. Armed with this qualification, he returned to Malaysia and proceeded to enthral local audiences with Malay movies that were refreshingly new and appealing to a cross-section of Malaysians of all races. Movies such as Gol & Gincu and Pisau Cukur were not only box office hits, but also scored with critics.
Even before the Prime Minister came out with the 1Malaysia concept, Chauly and his friends were already embodying it: he was a non-Malay (of Punjabi and Chinese ancestry) directing Malay movies where the script was written by a Malay (frequent collaborator Rafidah Abdullah) and produced by a Peranakan Chinese (Lina Tan of Red Communications Sdn Bhd).
Although Chauly grew up watching a lot of films in the theatre, thanks to his maternal grandmother, he never had a burning desire to be a film director. `I actually thought he might have ended up being a doctor or a lawyer. He certainly had the grades for it,' remembers his friend of over 20 years Angeline Ong. `The only thing (with the benefit of hindsight) that gave any indication of where Bernard may head towards in his future was this: he always had a strong interest in human stories. He was also one who would always follow his heart. I guess his heart eventually led him to writing and directing.'
Chauly thinks it is kismet and serendipity that led him to directing and of having strong women...