MUNDEY Kampung Dey (MKD), the first locally-made Punjabi language feature film is making waves in Malaysian cinemas since its debut three weeks ago.

Audiences have so far given encouraging support to the film since MKD was released on December 15 in nine cinemas in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, Perak, Johor and Seremban. 

“The film has been running successfully in cinemas for 21 days now,” a proud Mansher Singh, the producer and director of MKD, told Bernama today.

Although it is the first Punjabi language feature film in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, he said it was based on Malaysian culture with a multi-ethnic cast using multiple languages throughout the film.

Due to the high demand by the public, MKD’s screening has been extended until the weekend.

The showtime has also been extended for another week at TGV Cinema at Jaya Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya.

MKD is a story of three childhood friends from a backwater village who move to KL in search of a better life but their optimistic plans are cut short and get tangled up with in the city’s dark underworld with a boss lady ready to kill them for a valuable parcel in their possession.  

The comedy features Anwaar Beg Moghal, Nipun C, Hemant Shergill, Sanjna Suri, Chamkaur Singh, Mansher Singh, Sharmini Ramesh, Malkit Kaur and Ashvinder Singh.

“Overall it’s a decent family value story made for everyone by Malaysian talents. As for me, it’s a directorial debut with a budget of only RM600,000. My inspiration was the late P. Ramlee as he also liked to showcase true Malaysians in his movies,” Masher said.

Mansher said India and Pakistan have shown interest in releasing the film in their respective countries while some major streaming services were keen on showing it on their platforms.

Other key selling factors for the film were solid support from the Ministry of Communications and Digital and the National Film Development Corporation Malay­sia (Finas).

Ghaz Abu Bakar, the supervising producer for the film, said he was impressed the whole movie which included a car overturning stunt was made with such a small budget.

He said MKD was of the same level as the high-grossing “Polis Evo” action flicks that he directed in 2015 and 2018.

While expressing gratitude to Finas for supporting not only Malay movies but movies of other languages as well, Ghaz said MKD’s success goes to show that talented filmmakers can be found in Malaysia’s multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society.

Encouraging comments on the movie also poured in on social media.

“I enjoyed MKD, great acting, I cried, I laughed, the jokes are good and there are sad parts, it is engaging overall,” said Drgurmin.

Opdesh Kaur Cheema said, “Not a single dull moment, definitely a different level of performance, all should take time and go see the movie.”

A moviegoer by the name of Asugan also said, “personally, I find it a good entertaining film to be watched on the big screen. Special mention to the trio of boys who carried the film well with their performances. Not to forget the cinematography by C.Kumaresan, the nice melody of songs by composer Mansher Singh and Arvinder Raina and finally kudos to the duo Cobra and Dragon.” – Bernama, January 6, 2023.