Writer: Wahiduzzaman

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Watch this if you liked: "Mistik", "Potret Mistik"

It seems like director Razak Mohaideen never learns his lesson or refuses to do so. After making over 25 movies, Razak has yet to gain approval from many critics. Title after title, he keeps repeating the same mistakes - riding on his own fantasy and just going about it his own way. With "Rasukan Ablasa", the film professor continues to build negative impressions toward his work, which is now bordering on embarrassment as a director.

Once more we have the pain-in-the-arse plot. However, technically he now manages to cover the many loopholes that were evident in most of his previous flicks, including the lazy eye that tends to overlook the continuity aspect. For this, it is some measure of improvement.

The experience of the first 10 minutes is sufficient to already map out the whole story. It's agonisingly predictable and there's no need danger of this writer writing you a spoiler, for the director will do the job itself within that short period.

Delving into the story of a bunch of 'young monkeys' who initially goes into the jungle to record sounds of nature (eventually becoming a disturbing experience for them), the movie comes off very dry, without impact even. Razak once again offers yet another outdated story to the audience.

Worse, the film's quality is further devalued by the frail and stiff acting. Comprising mainly new faces (it was 2 years and 9 months ago when the film was shot), the young stars fail to impress in their roles. With Fouziah Ghous, Almy Nadia, Gambit, Hafiz Hanafiah and Ahmad Sakhee in the line-up, this 'bunch of monkeys' are actually a negative for the movie. Admittedly, it's only their debut attempt but schoolkids might have done better, what with headache-inducing performances that border on cinematic nausea. The finger can only be pointed at Razak for his sloppy provision and poor guidance to these young players.

Quite frankly, the movie has nothing much to look forward to, and you can even count it towards Razak's C-grade edition of works. This will probably only find fans with the RFC (Razak Fan Club) out there who always have faith in the director's touch.

It is not out of order to remind the general audience that if you had ever watched Razak's "Mistik" or "Potret Mistik", this one is just another clone. So, if you enjoyed those, perhaps you'll also love this one. But if you don't, you might as well just wait until it plays for free on television soon.

Cinema Online, 25 February 2009