Dharna (Christian Bables) is not the Darna that most Filipinos knew from the Mars Ravelo creation. The Jun Robles Lana film, Big Night won the Best Picture in the recently concluded Gabi ng Parangal of the 47th edition of Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) is a deeper look at the country’s extra-judicial killings (EJKs).
Bables’s Dharna is reminiscent of BB Gandanghari‘s character Ada in Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh. Though without any secret superpowers and has no alterego–he is still one hero to his family until he got stuck with the wrong network. He has two other gay brothers Vholtra and Ghalema (VJ Mendoza and Awra Briguela), who are equally flamboyant as him.
He is the typical gay in the local scene who works in a parlor and has a live-in boyfriend. His beau is Zeus (Nico Antonio), who impregnated a woman and he discovered it as of late while trying to save himself from being included in the watchlist of junkies (drug addicts and pushers).
Apart from its engaging and relevant plot, this Lana film is blessed with highly-caliber actors as supports to Bables. He’s joined by (in alphabetical order) Gina Alajar, John Arcilla, Janice de Belen, Soliman Cruz, Ricky Davao, Ogie Diaz, Eugene Domingo, Cedrick Juan, Gina Pareño, Allan Paule, Sue Prado, and Martin del Rosario. Notable acting supports are from Arcilla, de Belen, and Domingo, respectively. They all deserve best-supporting acting nominations.
Lana’s brilliance in writing a story and translating it into the big screen is quite a feat. The gay-themed flick set in a political backdrop with an entertaining value and a satirical approach earned him [both] the best director and the best screenplay awards. A well-deserved win after his Die Beautiful film that gave both Paolo Ballesteros and Christian Bables as best actor and best supporting actor awards in the 42nd MMFF in 2016.
Big Night succeeded in building around humor, irony, and exaggeration to ridicule and criticize viewpoints and issues like EJKs. Lana presented a scenario by exploiting filmmaking tropes to a high level and writing a script to provide the audience the awareness of what’s happening around in the national scene.
Apart from being a Gender Sensitivity Awardee, it also went home with other recognitions, like the Best Supporting Actor for John Arcilla, Best Musical Score for Teresa Barrozo, and Best Cinematography for Carlos Canlas. It has nine awards in total.
This film has the right mix of elements to succeed in an MMFF-run. The Lana-Bables tandem is one Big Night as they dominated in the awards’ night of the said annual December film fest. Filipinos deserve films like Big Night to watch in cinemas and on streaming platforms.
