HE is a filmmaker. She’s a TV news anchor. They met, fell in love and at a young age of 26, got married in July this year. That’s the story of documentary-maker Zan Azlee and ntv7’s Edisi 7 newsreader, Jasmine Abu Bakar.

As newlyweds, one would think that it must be awkward to celebrate Hari Raya, all with new family members to entertain, new home to decorate and new life together as husband and wife.

“Not really,” said Zan when met at his house for a Raya shoot a few days before the holidays.

“Even though we are married, it’s not really a life-changing experience to us. Everything about us has stayed the same as when we were dating. Which to me is important because if we changed, then that’d probably mean we don’t know each other well.”

“Our relationship is the same, with the only difference being our family is now bigger,” added Jasmine,
who is the eldest of two siblings.

“Yes, and with our marriage, I actually bonded more with my family. We go out lepak together almost every week,” said Zan.

“The quality time spent together is longer now,” said Jasmine. “When we want to go out to lunch, both sides of the family will join and the lunch can go on until teatime, and sometimes dinner. But other than that, Zan and I pretty much stay the same.”

Unlike most newly married couples who usually go all out to have matching outfits for Raya and have the little fights of which kampung to go back to first, Zan and Jasmine had their plans sorted out early.

“We celebrate Raya in my hometown Johor,” said Jasmine. “I thank my lucky stars that since I started working at ntv7, I’ve never worked on Raya — yet.”

“I’m originally from Johor too,” said Zan. “But now my kampung is here since my family moved to Kota Kemuning.”

They are not planning big on the wardrobe section either.

“I have only one Raya attire this year,” said Jasmine. “We just had our wedding a few months ago, so we are recycling the clothes and what not for Raya. It’s not a good time to spend as we used quite a lot of our savings for the wedding.”

Jasmine had the usual traditional wedding done in Johor. Zan, being the unique and creative person that he is, had their garden wedding at Taman Tun, at night — with a Mexican theme.

Jasmine, in her red dress, looked like Catherine Zeta Jones in the movie Zorro, while Zan, unfortunately,
looked nothing like the dashing Antonio Banderas, clad in his Mexican getup. At their wedding, the couple hit piñatas.

“It was really memorable. Everybody had fun,” said the couple, laughing at their wedding memories.

Indeed, for most guests the memories would not be forgettable, even if they tried.

As for Raya itself, Jasmine said that it’s been awhile since she felt the traditional Raya mood.

“There are no kids saying ‘Assalamualaikum’  at our door. Being in the big town of Johor Bharu, it’s like celebrating Raya in KL. I guess probably because the area that we live in is about 80 per cent Chinese populated. So we had our Chinese neighbours visiting us for Raya.”

“That’s okay,” said Zan, comforting his wife. “Kids just come by the house for Raya money packets anyways.
They don’t really want to get to know you or eat your cookies.”

“I remember once when my brother and I were celebrating Raya in Bangsar. As the kids that come to our door just wanted the Raya money packets, they kept on rotating their rounds. What we did was, we sprayed water at them!” laughed Zan.

Jasmine is currently an Assistant Producer for Edisi 7. She also anchors for Edisi 7 and events for the channel.

As for Zan, he had a film he hopes for all Malaysian to watch. “It’s called I’m Muslim Too! Heading to the Border,” said Zan. “Actually the original title was ‘The Life & Times Of The Islamic Insurgency’.

But the title was changed because last year, another of my films, called ‘I’m Muslim Too’, was aired on ntv7, so this is more of a branding continuation.”

In I’m Muslim Too! Heading to the Border, Zan went to Pattani in southern Thailand to find out how the ordinary folks there live amid the conflict and violence.

“As we all know, there are Islamic militants there who are fighting the Thai government for an autonomous state. While I was there, everyday, there’ll be either bombing or shooting. On average, about four to five people die in a day.

“My documentary is more on the life there than the insurgency. How, despite of all the violence, they continue
living, as ordinary as possible. For example, the children still want to go to school even though the teachers are getting assassinated. They still go out and play, although nearby there are potholes that were created by bombs, with parental permission. Basically, they don’t want to be scared.

“It’s heartwarming to see that although they are Thai nationals, they don’t want their Malay culture and background to be erased. It made me feel thankful being a Malaysian. The journey was quite an eye opener for me. I hope that one day, Malaysians get the chance to see this documentary on TV.”