NORA Aunor in “MMK”
When we heard that “Maalaala Mo Kaya?” was airing an episode starring Nora Aunor last May 7, we made sure that we were able to watch it. Our reactions:
The episode was an especially challenging thespic showcase for Nora, because it cast her as a mother with a really tragic problem—her children were stricken with a severe malady that serially caused them to expire in their youth! Nora shared the role with Angeli Bayani, who played the tragic mother role in her youth.
By the time Nora took over the part, a lot of TV time had already passed, so her showcase can’t be described as a solo thespic achievement.
Still, both Angeli and Nora came up with a “shared” performance that was exceptional and solidly measured up to the daunting acting challenge involved.
However, the fact that the storyline had so many death scenes eventually made the proceedings predictable and ultimately redundant.
Of course, the “problem” was created by the fact that the real-life mother did have to contend with all of those serial deaths, so the eventual issue of predictability “came with the territory.”
Still, the problem was due to the fact that the plot developments were scripted chronologically, with more or less equal time given to each child’s death.
Had the script chosen to take a less chronological approach, some events could have been compressed for better dramatic highlighting, focus, insight and effect, and the redundancy issue may have been reduced.
Despite these notes, we should credit the episode’s lead performers for coming up with noteworthy and insightful portrayals.
Aside from Nora and Angeli, Joel Torre as the protagonist’s husband also deserves to be cited for matching the Superstar’s grief and pain in the episode’s death scenes.
Nora’s best thespic “moment” was when her character harangued Heaven for her serial losses.
The experienced actress wisely opted to do this not with facile volume and intensity, but with greater interiority, depth and irony.
This is a complex and prismatic “attack” that would elude younger and less experienced actresses, but Nora was able to do full justice to the rigorously challenging moment.
All told, however, the fact that she shared the character with Angeli reduced the impact of the showcase as a “stand alone” highlight in her thespic career, as perhaps intended.
This limitation could have been mitigated or even solved by alternative scripting options not restricted to chronological storytelling, which could have enabled her to play the role alone.
Since those options didn’t pan out, we can only hope that, the next time a career-enhancing thespic showcase for Nora is considered, producers should make doubly sure that its focus on her remains clear and steadfast, from start to finish.