By Rizal Johan
Conductor Ahmad Muriz Che Rose will lead the MPO’s Madu Tiga presentation.
The legendary talent that is the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee, who could single handedly write, direct and act in a film as well as compose the score and the songs (perform and sing them too!) is going to receive the live treatment from the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) as they revisit his classic comedy Madu Tiga (The Three Wives).
Ramlee is Jamil, the ultimate player in the movie as he marries three women while maintaining his position as the most monogamous man to his wives and hilarity ensues when the secret is out. The film will be screened while the MPO plays the score and the songs of which there are four, Pukul Tiga Pagi, Selamat Pengantin Baru, Gambus Jodoh, and Madu Tiga.
The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra will perform music from P. Ramlee’s beloved comedy.
For conductor Ahmad Muriz Che Rose, who will lead the 65 musicians of the orchestra for this special tribute to P. Ramlee, said that this “personally, (has been) a life-long pursuit of mine”, in a recent chat with The Peak backstage at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (DFP).
“What if we take a P. Ramlee movie that people didn’t expect? His more popular songs are from his sadder, more melancholic films but we wanted to approach it from something humorous and we ended up choosing Madu Tiga,” said Ahmad, who has been a conductor with the MPO since 2012.
MADU TIGA: A MUSICAL TRIBUTE
A scene from Madu Tiga. Image used with permission from The Shaw Organisation Pte. Ltd.
Ahmad also wanted to pay tribute to P. Ramlee in completely new way as tribute concerts have been done before but this is the first time a full- blown orchestra will be accompanying this classic comedy film from 1964.
“As it is, P. Ramlee doesn’t need anything to be refreshed. What is there to redo in P. Ramlee’s film? What is already there works! We are actually revisiting this whole concept and giving it an even bigger pedestal that is deserving of such an outstanding figure.”
Getting the green light to go ahead with this tribute was only the first hurdle as P. Ramlee’s film presented technical challenges Ahmad had never faced before.
For one thing, there is no sheet music for the film score and songs so everything had to be transcribed. Once that was done, synching the sound, the score and the songs was another hurdle Ahmad had to overcome.
MUSIC, MOVIES AND MAGIC
For the conductor, this tribute is personal—a lifelong ambition to celebrate P. Ramlee with live music.
“We have staged Hollywood features like Harry Potter, The Godfather and the like before and in terms of isolation – this is a bit technical – isolation of dialogue, visuals, music and the special effects is basically a button away to mute everything.
“But this is from 1964, a Shaw Brothers production in Singapore which didn’t quite do that. So, we had to do everything from scratch. We had to find that technical know-how to isolate all these things and that took many months of preparation. And I’m happy to say that this technical process was all done locally. We could have gone overseas to do it but it was all done through our network locally,” said Ahmad.
This was the high standard that Ahmad wanted to meet; to be on-par with a box-office Hollywood production.
Image used with permission from The Shaw Organisation Pte. Ltd.
“God-willing if we pull this off successfully, it won’t just be a tribute to P. Ramlee but to all the people involved with the production of Madu Tiga back in 1964. They too had a part to play in the making of the movie.”
Originally, there was only one concert slated for this on Jan 24 but due to the overwhelming response, another date was added on Jan 23. “If you miss the opportunity to catch this performance, I don’t know when we are going to stage it again,” said Ahmad.
Ramlee’s Madu Tiga: Live In Concert by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) has one show a day at 8pm, Friday, Jan 23 and on Saturday, Jan 24, 2026 at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, KLCC. Ticketing details are available at the MPO Box-Office.
(Photos: MPO)
