The Laksamana - official blog of M. Shahrim
25/4/2025
People my age love Lagi Lagi Senario.
The story is relatable.
Relatable how? It's all there:
Malaysian culture, customers attitude in F&B, 1998 economic recession, job hunting, business rivalry, bootlegging, Islamic message, leadership in organization, love-hate relationship...
It would take another article just to elaborate it.
This time, I want to write about simple analysis I made. I ranked the characters based on their cleverness.
For the sake of simplicity, within the context of this movie: A character is considered smart if they think correctly, take correct actions, and remain wise in any predicament.
The smartest character, in ascending order:
He's the dumbest, although also the kindest.
Being unskilled worker, he probably desire better opportunities for himself, but he lacked wit and proper execution, which hurt him more than it hurt his boss in his act of betrayal.
He may have gotten an increase in income in the new place, but little did he know that he was just a convenient tool for Mazlan in business rivalry.
If only he assess situations better. Because what is the point of jumping job if you are not happy?
Likewise why Mazlan employ Saiful, she has a technical role where she's good at (albeit more tactical than technical).
Aside from being comfortable of having a boss that believes in "any means necessary", she enjoys orchestrating dirty tricks herself.
Stay away from this woman.
A kind boss - the only fitting 3-word description for him.
He can lead the men and make good decisions, but against ruthless competitor, he can lose easily.
Not because he doesn't know business tai-chi, but because he's too engulfed in emotional dispute and lose his cool.
Also, he should have never operates in a land/location that he doesn't own/rent.
Opposite of Azlee, and with slightly better strategy.
From the lens of money-making, Mazlan is doing the right thing, however immoral, hence I consider him smarter than Azlee.
Talent poaching is a serious problem in big businesses. Google even pay AI engineers to do nothing just so they don't join rivals.
The best employee you could have in the team is the one with balanced quality.
Wahid is a man with growth mindset and stocked with enthusiasm to perform, but bit naive...
He's a skilled motivator and resilient. He's right behind Azlee to stabilize a dire situations.
Talented, hardly replaceable - and he knows it.
Being precious is not enough, you have to realize that you are precious, and know how to leverage it.
When confronted on why he quit the old job, he said "korang tak boleh salahkan aku, dia offer aku gaji lebih, aku sapu ah".
Not only that, Saiful is a resourceful man, and can plan ahead, like how he revealed everything at the end of the movie.
I'm conflicted whether to place her at third place or fourth place. By comparison, Saiful is still superior, especially in terms of skills and business production.
She did an outstanding move: she quit her job and immediately land herself at a new job by force.
All of this happened in one go. No application. No interviews. No agreements.
"awak berdua diam, mulai sekarang, saya kerja kat sini"
Remember that scene?
The smartest duo. I had to put them together.
Azlee poured lifetime of efforts in business. Mazlan tried to outdo Azlee and barely finish.
Then came Ah Cai and Muthu, effortlessly destroying both businesses in one swoop.
They don't get involved in drama, yet benefiting all the time. Smartass.
The real clever here is Aziz M. Osman.
Sure, he's just cameo character, and has no important interactions in the plot.
But he's the mastermind and controller of the story.
Mohamad Shahrim
author of The Laksamana