Andjar Asmara

Abisin Abbas (26 February 1902 – 20 October 1961), better known by his pseudonym Andjar Asmara, was a dramatist and filmmaker active in the cinema of the Dutch East Indies.

Born in Alahan Panjang, West Sumatra, he first worked as a reporter in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta).

He became a writer for the Padangsche Opera in Padang, where he developed a new, dialogue-centric style, which later spread throughout the region.

Andjar was born Abisin Abbas in Alahan Panjang, West Sumatra, on 26 February 1902.

He gravitated toward traditional theatre at a young age after visits from the wandering Wayang Kassim and Juliana Opera stambul troupes; he pretended to act with his friends in stage plays which they had seen.

After completing his formal education up to the Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (junior high school) level – first in Malay-language schools then Dutch ones – he moved to Batavia (modern-day Jakarta).

He worked as a reporter for two daily newspapers, Bintang Timur and Bintang Hindia; he may have also worked on a farm.

In the late 1920s, after spending some two years in Medan with the daily Sinar Soematra, Andjar returned to Batavia and in 1929 helped establish the magazine Doenia Film, a Malay adaptation of the Dutch-language magazine Filmland; although an adaptation, Doenia Film also contained original coverage of the domestic theatre and film industry.

Among the works he wrote for the Padangsche Opera were adaptations of Melati van Agam, a 1923 work by Swan Pen, and Sitti Nurbaya, a 1922 novel by Marah Roesli.

These works were well received.

Around 1925, having had little success in Batavia, Andjar moved to Padang, where he was a reporter for the daily Sinar Sumatra.

At the same time, he worked with the city's Padangsche Opera, writing stage plays.

In contrast to the standard musical theatre of the time, bangsawan, he promoted a more natural style, using dialogue instead of song to convey the story; he referred to this as toneel, based on the Dutch word for theatre.

At the time, the cinema of the Indies was becoming established: the first domestic film, Loetoeng Kasaroeng (The Lost Lutung), was released in 1926, and four additional films were released in 1927 and 1928.

After returning to Batavia in 1929, he spent over a year as a theatre and film critic.

Andjar wrote extensively regarding local cinematic and theatrical productions; for example, the Indonesian film critic Salim Said writes Andjar inspired the marketing for 1929's Njai Dasima, which emphasised the exclusively native cast.

In 1930 he joined the Dardanella touring troupe as a writer.

He went to India in an unsuccessful bid to film his stage play Dr Samsi.

In 1930 Andjar left Doenia Film and was replaced by Bachtiar Effendi.

Andjar became a writer for the theatrical troupe Dardanella in November 1930, working under the group's founder Willy A. Piedro.

Andjar believed the troupe to be dedicated to the betterment of the toneel as an art form and not only motivated by financial interests, as were the earlier stambul troupes.

He wrote and published many plays with the group's backing, including Dr Samsi and Singa Minangkabau (The Lion of Minangkabau).

Andjar also worked as a theatre critic, writing several pieces on the history of local theatre, sometimes using his birth name and sometimes his pseudonym.

After leaving Dardanella in 1936, Andjar established his own troupe.

He also worked at a publishers, writing serials based on successful films.

In 1936 Andjar went with Dardanella to India to record a film adaptation of his drama Dr Samsi, which followed a doctor who was blackmailed after an unscrupulous Indo discovered he had an illegitimate child.

The deal fell through, however, and Andjar left India with his wife Ratna.

He was soon asked by The Teng Chun, with whom he had maintained a business relationship, to direct a film for his company Java Industrial Film (JIF); with this Andjar became one of several noted theatrical personnel who migrated to film following Albert Balink's 1937 hit Terang Boelan (Full Moon).

In 1940 he was asked to join The Teng Chun's company, Java Industrial Film, helping with marketing and working as a director for two productions.

After the Japanese occupation, during which time he stayed in theatre, Andjar made a brief return to cinema.

He directed three films in the late 1940s and wrote four screenplays, which were produced as films in the early 1950s.

Upon his return to the Indies, Andjar formed another theatrical troupe, Bolero, with Effendi, but left the troupe around 1940 to work at Kolf Publishers in Surabaya.

Effendi was left as the head of Bolero, which then became more politicised.

At Kolf Andjar edited the publisher's magazine Poestaka Timoer.

As his work entailed writing synopses and serials based on popular films for Kolf's magazine, he became increasingly involved in the film industry.

After handling the marketing for Rentjong Atjeh (Rencong of Aceh, 1940), Andjar made his directorial debut in 1940 with Kartinah, a war-time romance starring Ratna Asmara.

Academia was critical of the film, believing it to lack educational value.

He published a novel, Noesa Penida (1950).

Afterward he worked for the remainder of his life writing serials based on local films and publishing film criticism.

Historians recognise him as a pioneer of theatre and one of the first native Indonesian film directors, although he had little creative control of his productions.