A 1MALAYSIA HERO
- Reading the entertainment page 17 of THE SUN on 28th October, 2010 whereby close associates and the son of P. Ramlee, Sazali, commented on our legendary hero, I rang up Rocky Bru of the Malay Mail, as I do not know of anybody in The Sun, as to how I can contribute by writing something of my friend P. Ramlee which I have not seen being mentioned anywhere in write-ups about him that I have come across so far.
- P. Ramlee, whose full name is Teuku Zakaria Teuku Nyak Puteh is known to my family in Penang where he lived and studied and known to my family in Singapore where he bloomed as an entertainer.
- One of his closest close friend is my uncle Sasterawan Negara Dato' Abdullah Husein who was working in Singapore at about the same time as P. Ramlee.
- It was when P. Ramlee was in Gombak that I came closer to him. Together with Dato' Abdullah Husein and Encik Zain of Filem Negara, at that time, we formed a company SAZARA SDN. BHD., SAZARA; being the acronym for Sanusi, Zain, Ramlee and Abdullah. Except for Zain who did not originate from Aceh all the other three of us were of Achehnese origin.
- The objective of forming the company was to produce films which will motivate the people into being more courageous and persistent in facing life. We were then inspired by the film 'The One Arm Swordsman' acted, directed and produced at the Shaw Bros. Studio in Hong Kong by the martial art expert Jimmy Wang Yu. In this film it was portrayed that a courageous, determined and persistent individual can achieve wonders despite all odds, in this case Wang Yu was with only one arm.
- Dato' Abdullah Husein, being an author, has written a few scripts for Sazara's production. P. Ramlee was already rehearsing and Zain the photographer was anxious to shoot. It was my responsibility as a bank officer to find the money.
