Andjar Asmara became a writer for the Padangsche Opera in Padang, where he developed a new, dialogue-centric style, which later spread throughout the region.
22 Facts About Andjar Asmara
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Andjar Asmara went to India in an unsuccessful bid to film his stage play Dr Samsi.
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Andjar Asmara worked at a publishers, writing serials based on successful films.
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Andjar Asmara directed three films in the late 1940s and wrote four screenplays, which were produced as films in the early 1950s.
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Andjar Asmara gravitated toward traditional theatre at a young age after visits from the wandering Wayang Kassim and Juliana Opera stambul troupes; he pretended to act with his friends in stage plays which they had seen.
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Around 1925, having had little success in Batavia, Andjar Asmara moved to Padang, where he was a reporter for the daily Sinar Sumatra.
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Andjar Asmara wrote extensively regarding local cinematic and theatrical productions; for example, the Indonesian film critic Salim Said writes Andjar Asmara inspired the marketing for 1929's Njai Dasima, which emphasised the exclusively native cast.
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In 1930 Andjar Asmara left Doenia Film and was replaced by Bachtiar Effendi.
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Andjar Asmara believed the troupe to be dedicated to the betterment of the toneel as an art form and not only motivated by financial interests, as were the earlier stambul troupes.
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Andjar Asmara wrote and published many plays with the group's backing, including Dr Samsi and Singa Minangkabau.
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Andjar Asmara worked as a theatre critic, writing several pieces on the history of local theatre, sometimes using his birth name and sometimes his pseudonym.
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In 1936 Andjar Asmara went with Dardanella to India to record a film adaptation of his drama Dr Samsi, which followed a doctor who was blackmailed after an unscrupulous Indo discovered he had an illegitimate child.
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The deal fell through and Andjar Asmara left India with his wife Ratna.
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Andjar Asmara was asked by The Teng Chun, with whom he had maintained a business relationship, to direct a film for his company Java Industrial Film ; with this Andjar became one of several noted theatrical personnel who migrated to film following Albert Balink's 1937 hit Terang Boelan.
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Andjar Asmara was not involved in these but was excited by the artistic merits of Japanese films.
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In 1950, Andjar Asmara published his only novel, Noesa Penida, a critique of the Balinese caste system, which followed lovers from different levels of the social hierarchy.
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In 1958 Andjar Asmara became the head of the entertainment magazine Varia, where the fellow director Raden Ariffien served as his deputy.
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Andjar Asmara held the position until his death; among other roles, he wrote a series of memoires on the history of theatre in the country.
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Andjar Asmara's toneels were generally based on day-to-day experiences, rather than the tales of princes and ancient wars which were standard at the time.
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Andjar Asmara believed that the Padangsche Opera's performances influenced other troupes in West Sumatra to adapt the toneel format, which later spread throughout the Indies.
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Cohen believes that Andjar Asmara worked to justify the toneel style and distance it from the earlier stambul.
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Andjar Asmara was one of the first native Indonesian film directors, with Bachtiar Effendi, Soeska, and Inoe Perbatasari.