Ayat Ayat Cinta - Verses of Love

Synopsis (with info from Ayat Ayat Cinta site).
Ayat Ayat Cinta is an Indonesian mellodrama movie but with a lil twists where Islamic virtues are protrayed in this love story. This movie revolves areound the virtuous Muslim protagonist who overcomes all obstacles of life maintaining pure ideals.

Fahri bin Abdillah (Fedi Nurli) is a poor, intelligent student who wins a scholarship to complete his graduate degree at Egypt's esteemed Al Azhar University. Very disciplined and dedicated by nature, Fahri embraces his life in Cairo, completing his studies and translation of religious books with full enthusiasm, exactly according to pre-determined targets.

He has another target too - that is to get married. But this becomes slightly difficult as he mentions that his religion doesn't allow dating. And even more so when there are so many girls who are sworn over by him.

The most distinctive - Maria Girgis (Carissa Putri), an open-minded Christian neighbour who is attracted to the teachings of the Holy Al Quran.

Then there is Nurul and Noura, but he eventually married the rich daughter - German Turkish, Aisha (Rianti Cartwright).

Things begin to get complicated when he marries Aisha with cases like he going to jail, court proceedings and more.

Why You Should Watch This Movie
If you would like to see and learn the positive side of Islam through a movie. This movie imparts knowledge on reasons for Islamic values (eg on polygamy, handling situations in times of uncertainty, and many more) - giving a better idea and maybe even clearing the mind on the often misunderstood religion.

Also, this movie is uniquely set in Cairo with quite breathtaking views.

Why Not
The never ending twist & turns in the movie - a lil too many towards the end. The movie could have ended at certain points, but to allow more drama, the ending became prolonged.

Conclusion & Movie Rating
This movie is worth the money for those interested in Asian cinema and Indonesian films, despite its poor ending.

3 stars.



Apparently, this movie is based by best-selling novel with the same title by Habiburrahman El. Shirazy.

Azur & Asmar

This fairytale cartoon is about 2 children, Azur & Asmar, who grew up together and taken care by Asmar's mother. She was working as a maid for Azur's rich dad.

Azur's dad seperated the 2 kids while young and also sacked the maid.

Years later when Azur grew up, he went on the quest to seek the Djinn fairy, whose story is not sure a fairytale or truth. Being white, he ended up landing on the Arab nation, whose blue eyes were a curse. Hence, he pretended to be blind.

In all surprises, he finally met Asmar's mum, who now is a rich merchant. And she shows both him & Asmar the ropes to meet the fairy.

This fairytale story is set with beautiful intricate & lavish Arabic settings, especially in the homes of the now merchant and the Djinn's fairy's palace.

This movie also drops little snippets of philosophies & beliefs, like that 'tone is more important in getting message accross, rather than language itself'. It comes as no surprise because the movie was dubbed in both French & Arabic, and do not have full translations of each sentence.

In addition, it also shows how some people can perceive things negatively, while other see it in a positive light. This was shown when Azur pretended to be blind, his new found friend, only told him the bad things, even if they seemed ok. But when he finally opened his eyes, he got a shocked to know the contrary.

Interestingly set, this movie is beautiful with its colours & drawings, and is a rather decent show :)