Balada Sepasang Kekasih Gila (2021) Review : Two Outsiders Find Love Inside a World That Rejects Them

 

Balada Sepasang Kekasih Gila | 2021 | 1h 30m
Genre: Drama/Crime | Country: Indonesia
Director: Anggy Umbara | Writers: Anggy Umbara, Han Gagas
Cast: Denny Sumargo, Sara Fajira, Vera Sharoon, etc.
IMDb: 6.3
My Rate: 8/10

Djarot and Lastri, two people considered "crazy" by society, find love in a world that sometimes seems even more chaotic than they are. Haunted by dark pasts, they embark on a journey to discover the meaning of life.

Warning:

Contains sexual content and violence.

What if the people we call “crazy” are not always the ones who have lost their minds, but sometimes the ones society has refused to understand?

That was one of the thoughts that stayed with me while watching Balada Sepasang Kekasih Gila (2021). The film tells the story of two people who are considered mentally unwell and pushed aside by society, yet somehow find a connection with each other in the middle of a life that has been anything but kind to them.

Lastri (Sara Fajira), a woman living with a mental health condition, becomes the target of people in her neighborhood. Her presence is considered dangerous and disturbing, so she is driven out of the place where she lives and ends up wandering the streets. Her situation becomes even worse when a group of men abduct and rape her.

Lastri retaliates by cutting off the genitalia of the man who raped her. Because of this, she is imprisoned for a period of time before eventually being released by a woman who claims to be an acquaintance of her aunt. But freedom does not actually make her life better. Instead, she is forced to work as a prostitute and serve men who pay for sex.

Then there is Djarot (Denny Sumargo), a man with a low IQ who is accused of being a communist after killing several people who bullied him. He is sent to a psychiatric hospital and initially receives harsh treatment while being isolated. Eventually, however, he becomes able to interact more comfortably with the other patients.

After being considered well enough to leave the psychiatric hospital, Djarot is released. But where can someone like him go after leaving an institution when he has nowhere to return to?

He goes back to the streets and does whatever he can to survive. He collects recyclable materials, searches through garbage for food, and experiences various unpleasant situations along the way.

Lastri, meanwhile, feels that her life is becoming increasingly unbearable and decides to escape. During her escape, she meets Djarot, who tries to help her. He does everything he can to keep her away from the people guarding the foundation where she is forced to work, even though he ends up seriously injured.

Something that resembles love begins to grow between them.

But even after everything they have already survived, life still seems unwilling to give them an easy path.

That is probably what attracted me to Balada Sepasang Kekasih Gila in the first place. The film, adapted from Han Gagas's novel of the same name, tells its story from a perspective that is not commonly explored. Instead of looking at people considered mentally ill only from the outside, the film seems to invite us to see their world from closer inside.

I find that idea interesting.

The use of a child as the narrator is also one of the film's most distinctive choices. The narration gives the story a different feeling, almost as though we are being asked to look at these characters without immediately carrying all the assumptions that adults normally have about them.

The narration itself is also written with quite an aesthetic quality. Many of the sentences revolve around psychology, the way people think, and the way humans interpret the world around them. I personally like this aspect because it gives the story a certain depth.

Unfortunately, I feel that the foundation of the story is not strong enough in several places, especially when it comes to the characters' backgrounds. There are details that should have helped me understand who Lastri and Djarot were before everything happened to them, but some of those details are not developed clearly enough.

There are also several inconsistencies that make the direction of the story feel uncertain.

For example, the film never clearly explains why Lastri has become mentally unwell or what specific condition she is experiencing. There is a scene in which she is given medication to prevent hallucinations, suggesting that her mental state is part of the story. Yet when she is in prison, she suddenly appears more mentally stable, as though she has become “normal” again.

Then, during her escape, she appears to return to the previous state.

That change made me confused because it is not explained clearly enough. It can feel as though her mental condition comes and goes depending on what the story needs at that moment.

Something similar happens with Djarot.

Lastri is imprisoned because of the crime she commits, while Djarot is sent to a psychiatric hospital for rehabilitation. Considering that both characters are portrayed as mentally unwell and both have committed serious acts of violence, the difference in how they are treated raises questions for me.

Djarot is eventually released from rehabilitation as though he has become well enough to return to society, but the film does not really show a clear difference between how he was when he entered the hospital and how he is when he leaves.

That makes the situation confusing. Are their conditions supposed to be temporary? Do they improve and relapse? Or is the film simply using “madness” as a broader way of describing people who do not fit society's expectations?

I wish the story had explained this more carefully.

Another inconsistency appears when the film explores the characters' search for the nature of God. At first, the narration seems to be influenced by a Christian perspective. This is reinforced by the appearance of a Bible, and Lastri also confirms her religion. However, the wedding later takes place using Islamic customs.

For me, this creates confusion because the religious context does not feel consistent.

Still, there are things about the film that I genuinely appreciate.

The performances are quite good. Denny Sumargo already has considerable acting experience, and his performance as Djarot is convincing. What surprised me more is Sara Fajira, who was making her feature-film debut with this role. She manages to hold her own alongside Denny and gives Lastri enough emotional weight to make her character memorable.

I think her performance is one of the film's strengths.

The costume and makeup, however, could have been better. There are moments when the appearance of the characters does not feel as convincing as it should, especially considering the conditions they are supposed to be living through.

There are also several scenes that do not seem entirely logical. But interestingly, I think some of these moments can be understood differently if we change our perspective while watching the film.

Perhaps that is one reason I do not completely reject the unusual things that happen in the story.

The problem for me is that the ending feels somewhat forced. After spending so much time following these characters through hardship, I expected the conclusion to feel more naturally connected to everything that came before it.

Even with those weaknesses, I still think Balada Sepasang Kekasih Gila has something valuable to say about humanity.

The film repeatedly shows people being judged according to how society sees them. Once someone is labeled as “crazy,” it becomes easier for others to stop looking at the person behind the label.

And perhaps that is why the relationship between Lastri and Djarot is interesting to watch. They may not understand the world in the same way as other people do, but they understand loneliness. They understand being rejected. They understand what it feels like to have nowhere to go.

One scene that stayed with me is when Lastri is separated from Djarot after the pickup truck they are hiding in suddenly starts moving.

Lastri realizes that she has lost Djarot and spends the journey crying. Djarot also realizes that Lastri is gone, and he cries over her disappearance.

What makes this scene memorable to me is not simply the sadness of separation. It is the feeling that these two people have developed a real emotional connection. They seem to be wondering whether their meeting will ever happen again.

There is something very complicated in their expressions because they are not only sad. There is uncertainty, fear, longing, and perhaps the realization that they may have finally found someone who understood them.

The dialogue, “Humans are too busy worshipping their own thoughts,” also stayed with me.

I think that line fits the film because so much of the story is about the way humans create judgments based on their own understanding. We decide what is normal, what is acceptable, who is sane, who is dangerous, and who deserves to be pushed away.

But our understanding is still limited.

That is what makes the film feel more interesting when I stop looking at it only as a story about two people with mental health problems. It also becomes a story about the people watching them and deciding what they are supposed to be.

We are often very confident about our own definitions of normality. We forget that our perspective is still only one perspective.

Balada Sepasang Kekasih Gila (2021) is not a perfect film for me. The character backgrounds could be stronger, several parts of the story are inconsistent, the dialogue can sometimes feel forced, and the ending could have been handled more naturally. But I still find it interesting because of the humanity it tries to present.

Perhaps what stayed with me most is not the idea that these characters are “crazy,” but the fact that they are still people who want to be understood, cared for, and loved.

And maybe that is something worth thinking about in our own lives: how often do we judge someone based on the label we give them, without ever taking the time to understand the person who exists behind it?

(Aluna Uwie)

Previously published on Alunauwie.com.

"This article was originally written in Indonesian and has been adapted into English for international readers."