‘Mencari Ramlee’ Is a Gritty Love Letter to Legends & Lies

By Danial Martinus  •  23 Jun 2025 in Movies & TV

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The heart of local cinema beats a little louder this month with Mencari Ramlee, a maiden feature by Megat Sharizal.

It’s a story that manages to be both a melancholic ode to P. Ramlee and a sharp, tender look at what it means to survive in the shadow of a legend.

Not just a story about a struggling performer

Set against the smoggy, sepia-toned streets of 1970s Kuala Lumpur, Mencari Ramlee introduces us to Zakaria (Tony Eusoff), a down-and-out impersonator of the legendary auteur, P. Ramlee.

He’s not some wide-eyed dreamer chasing fame; he’s a realist trying to make rent and provide for his sister, theatre student Yasmin (Mimi Lana). Ramlee’s recent passing has left the public mourning, yes, but also moving on.

His brand of film and song is suddenly “too old”, “too nostalgic”, “no longer relevant”. For Zakaria, who has built his livelihood on the likeness of a fading icon, things are starting to slip.

But this story doesn’t just revolve around the struggles of a celebrity impersonator. It’s about debt, desperation, and the lengths someone will go to protect family.

Enter Yusuf (played by Megat Sharizal himself), a local gangster and debt collector with a grin too wide and terms too cruel. Zakaria, with little else to offer, agrees to Yusuf’s bizarre request: pretend to be Ramlee, one last time, for Yusuf’s sister Zaiton, who’s mentally stuck in the 1950s. And this is where things take a strange, beautiful turn.

Zaiton, played by Sofia Jane, believes she’s still in the golden age of black-and-white cinema. Her reality is stitched together with the films of P. Ramlee, and Zakaria finds himself stepping into those scenes, re-enacting them in a surreal retelling that dances between memory and myth.

And that’s where you might find the beauty in Mencari Ramlee—not in terms of accuracy, but in devotion. Megat Sharizal doesn’t try to mimic the iconic films frame by frame. Instead, he reimagines them, allowing the audience to feel their magic without the pressure of perfection.

Each homage is a love letter, a reminder of how deeply Ramlee’s work shaped the soul of Malaysian cinema.

Beneath the nostalgia, there’s grit

Zakaria’s life isn’t a musical. His lies begin to catch up to him. He’s forced to ask himself if embodying a legend is worth erasing his own identity. And as Zaiton begins to blur the line between fantasy and truth, the emotional stakes rise.

What’s clever is how Mencari Ramlee doesn’t just glorify the past, it questions it. It asks what happens to those left behind when a legend dies. It explores the cost of idolising someone so completely that everyone else fades into the background. Zakaria may look like Ramlee, but he isn’t him. And that’s the tragedy (and the point).

Megat Sharizal, known for his work in the indie scene, shows real heart here. This isn’t a flashy biopic or a glossy tribute. It’s raw. It’s personal. It’s painfully Malaysian in all the best ways, full of borrowed suits, cheap coffee, broken dreams, and an undying love for film.

For anyone who loves Malaysian storytelling, or has ever felt like they were born in the wrong era, give Mencari Ramlee a go at your nearest cinema.

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