the encyclopedic entry of Gubra

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Name

Gubra gets its title from the word gubra, a word in the local Penang or Kedah variant of Malay used mainly used by the mamak community. The word means "worry". For overseas distribution, it was marketed as "Anxiety".

Synopsis

The story plot of Gubra is set a few years after Orked's romance with Jason, where she is married to Ariff, a man who is very much older than herself. Early one morning, when she was fooling around with Ariff in the bathroom, her mother Mak Inom called her and said, "Orked, come now! We're losing your abah (father in Malay)!" Apparently, Orked's father, Pak Atan had diabetic complications and the whole family, with their maid, Kak Yam, and chauffeur, Anuar, inclusive, frantically rushed him to the hospital.

At the hospital, Orked incidentally meets Alan, the elder brother of Jason, who recognized her from the photos that Jason and Orked took together during their rendezvous. Alan's father was also hospitalized due to a broken leg after his mother pushed him down the doorstep in annoyance. Alan was divorced from his Singaporean wife in this story and had his six year-old daughter in his custody. In the midst of the 'reunion', Kak Yam got romantically involved with one of the hospital's male nurses, while Orked discovered, again (as it was not the first time since Orked mentioned, "You don't have to worry about breaking up our marriage, it's on the rocks anyway."), that Ariff had been seeing another lady, Latifah, behind her back. She moved back to her family home and had Alan bring her to his house where she tearfully retrieved momento items of her days with Jason, including photos and several Jason's Chinese poetry books, which Alan had kept away secretly for fear that his mother will secure them tightly in remembrance of her deceased son.

On a separate side of the story, Temah (full name: Fatimah Zakaria) is a Malay-Muslim lady who, unfortunately not well-versed in the Quran, works as a prostitute, together with a sidekick, Kiah. Despite her occupation, she is very fond and caring of her suspectedly born-out-of-wedlock son, Shahrin, whom she sends to religiously-rooted friend, Mas' house, for Quranic lessons under Mas' son, Adam's religious teacher. Mas' husband is a muezzin who also shares a neighbourly and friendly bond with Temah. He even helped to retrieve Temah's wallet when it was robbed from her by a man, suspectedly her former boyfriend who caused her to be pregnant with Shahrin, who might be in a frantic search of money to settle his gambling debts with loan sharks. Meanwhile, Temah went for blood tests at a polyclinic and discovered that she had contracted the HIV virus. Regretfully, she requested Mas to teach her the Quran, who also guided her back to the path and aided her to perform her prayers.

The finale of the story sees Alan's parents reconcilating after years of quarrels and fights by praying together before a Chinese altar and Alan and his daughter performing their solemn vows in a church.

At the end of the credits, Orked was seen snuggling beside a topless Jason. Both wore wedding rings.

Cryptics

Shahrin related to Temah how he had dreamt of her sitting on a swing crying. This revealed that Shahrin had somehow foreshadowed the scene where Temah was sitting on a swing pouring out her sorrow of having contracting HIV to Mas and Kiah.

During Alan's drive with Orked to find a nice place to have breakfast, their conversation contained lines expressing the beauty of Malaysia's variety of cultures and races, but lacked sincere appreciation from the Government, as portrayed by the line "... it's like loving someone who doesn't love you back".