Psycho-thriller series by seven writers

The mini series Mandatori sees actor Airel Zafrel playing his most challenging role yet, writes Tahir Alhamzah

FOR actor Airel Zafrel, playing the character of Inspector Norman Abdullah in the miniseries has proven to be one of the toughest acting jobs he has had in his 11-year career. “This has to be among the most challenging characters so far,” says the Batu Pahat-born actor.

“It’s my first time playing a police officer. And it’s not an ordinary police officer. Norman is a criminal profiler,” adds Airel, whose real name is Suhairil Sunari, 29.

HEAVY AND EMOTIONAL

In the psycho-thriller Inspector Norman has been assigned a murder case which soon turns out to be serial.

Norman becomes more confused when individuals he knows become the victims of the ruthless serial killer.

“As a profiler who’s investigating the case, I need to not over act if I want to convince TV audiences of the character I play,” he says.

Airel says he wasn’t confident of landing the role at first.

“It is undeniably heavy drama, with a lot of emotional play on my part as Norman. So I was a little unsure if I was up for it initially. But with a lot of guidance from the director (Razaisyam Rashid) and the team, I’m really glad to have been a part of this production,” adds Airel, whose brooding looks perfectly fit the role of a protagonist in such a dramatic thriller.

Airel admits that prior to playing a rather intense scene, he would distance himself from the rest of the cast so that he could get into character.

“But I don’t put myself into total solitude when I go back home to my family,” he says, with a laugh and a twinkle in his eyes.

FRESH AND NEW APPROACH

Adapted from the novel written by the country’s top thriller novelist Ramlee Awang Murshid, the six-part miniseries is the result of a year of scriptwriting by a pool of seven writers from Ideate Media (coproducer of the movie

which was screened in cinemas last October).

“In my 10-year career, this has to be the best script that I’ve ever worked with. With the length of time spent on script development, it had better be,” jokes the awardwinning Razaisyam.

“It’s very rare for me to receive such a good script, and it’d be insane if I were to skip this project,” says Razaisyam.

“I was confident of this young director who’d give his all to this project, and injects a fresh and new approach,” says production house head Zainir Aminullah.

EXPANSIVE STORY

Zainir adds that the reason why Astro and the production house had decided on a miniseries format was because of the epic story.

“Because of the expansive narrative and richness of the storyline, we believe that TV is a more appropriate medium, compared to a feature film, for explains Zainir.

Others in the cast include artistes with various backgrounds and experiences such as Siti Saleha, Iedil Putra, Alvin Wong, Amerul Affendi, Vanidah Imran, Chew Kin Wah, Jo Kukathas, Susan Lankester and Datuk Ahmad Tarmimi Siregar.

is airing on Astro First Ekslusif (Astro channel 480) and on-demand digital platform. Priced at RM19.10, viewers can binge-watch all the six one-hour episodes of the miniseries within five days from the date of purchase.