A treasure in Direk Wenn's hands

Director Wenn Deramas is proud of many things, like the box-office success of Tanging Ina, one of Star Cinema’s top grossers a few years back. Nothing, however, can beat the psychic high he gets out of knowing he has found a true friend in Ai-Ai delas Alas, star of Tanging Ina, and now, its follow-up movie, Ang Tanging Ina N’yong Lahat.

Actress and director feel like they’ve known each other since birth. And like the siblings they wish they are to each other, Ai-Ai and direk Wenn share the same ways.

“We’re like a love team,” direk Wenn reveals. “Her illness is mine, too. We get an attack of psoriasis when we’re tense. When I enter her house, it’s as if I’m in my house, too.”

It goes without saying that they treat each other like family.

“When I told someone that I needed money during a shooting break, I didn’t know Ai-Ai overheard me. I thought she was fast asleep,” recalls the director.

Imagine his utter surprise and delight when Ai-Ai handed him a box containing a check she herself made for direk Wenn!

“I shed tears right then and there,” he goes on.

So close they are to each other Ai-Ai even recounts dreaming about her director-friend. Swapping text messages and sharing secrets have also become routine between them.

Theirs is a long, colorful friendship. It started seven movies ago when Ai-Ai had yet to become an overnight superstar.

The friendship flourished on the sets of Volta, Ang Cute ng Ina Mo, Kapag Tumibok ang Puso, Pasukob, Ikaw Pa Rin and Tanging Ina.

“Ai-Ai loves her work so much,” observes direk Wenn. No overnight taping (for Betty La Fea) that packed up at 4 a.m. can keep her from reporting to the Tanging Ina N’yong Lahat set a mere two hours after.

No amount of success, too will get into Ai-Ai’s head. Direk Wenn relates, “Ai-Ai told me showbiz is a small world. We can’t avoid bumping on each other now and then. And she doesn’t want to hear directors say she gave them a headache when she’s no longer in showbiz.”

This feel-good vibes shows in the rib-tickling scenes of Ang Tanging Ina N’yong Lahat, Star Cinema’s entry to the Metro Filmfest. Sure, the movie is about an ordinary mother of 12 grown up kids. She faces a new set of problems with them when she is elected into the highest office of the land. But the movie keeps its nose clean from politics. Instead, its main character Ina (Ai-Ai) keeps things light and breezy by mouthing sayings you’ve never heard of before.

Samples: “Kung kaya ng iba, ipagawa mo sa kanya.” Or how about “Ang batang masipag, pag laki pagod.”?

Direk Wenn has no pretensions about his newest film. It’s not satirical, just downright funny. There are no GMA (Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) jokes. True, Ina’s predecessor is another Gloria — Gloria Diaz. But the allusion is more tongue-in-cheek than political.

“We offer humorous solutions to the country’s problems,” direk Wenn relates. Ina, for instance, declares that abusive drivers should be locked in a foul-smelling toilet to learn their lesson.”

Ai-Ai and her staff roll up their sleeves and plant rice to enforce a waste-not-want-not policy.

The solutions may seem strange. But they are not meant to be taken seriously in the first place. It’s meant to make moviegoers laugh their heads off. Besides, why add to the moviegoer’s woes when he has more than he can handle?

Thus, Ai-Ai trades punchlines with just-as-funny Eugene Domingo (see, no scene stealing!). On the side, she again raises a brood of fatherless children the best way she knows how.

Christmas is a time for merry making, for family get-togethers, not for sulking about problems.

Direk Wenn rides high on this spirit again and hopes to keep the audience rolling down the aisles once more. Star Cinema executives hope they will laugh all the way to the bank as well.

“I’d like Ai-Ai to have an instant hit again so she can get a well-deserved rest,” Direk Wenn states his Christmas wish for his friend.

After that, he wants to keep her momentum going via Santang Ina, another take on the motherly love theme which has become a trademark of Ai-Ai’s movies. Direk Wenn envisions Santang Ina as a spoof of Nora Aunor’s Himala.

Ah, friendship strong and true. It’s adding sparkle to Ai-Ai and direk Wenn’s lives. It’s also bringing magic on screen and into the lives of moviegoers hungry for comic relief this season, and other season of the year.