ABNKKRNPLAko!

Curtain-raiser:

• Sen. Bong Revilla and wife Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado (below) are going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land during the Holy Week, together with the Bible-reading group that they have joined a few months ago. If I remember right, years ago Bong accompanied his mother, the late Azucena Mortel, on a trip to Lourdes during her battle with cancer.

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Back then when Baby Boomers were twisting and shouting to the frenzied beat of Beatlemania, there was J.D. Salinger catapulted as idol/hero of the campus crowd because he eloquently spoke for Age Of Aquarius generation’s angst in life in his book The Catcher In The Rye which I’ve read three times (no kidding!). The lovestruck of the roaring ‘60s freely borrowed lines from Beyond Forgetting and For Dreams Must Die by Rolando Carbonell (who married LVN Pictures’ singing sweetheart Letty Liboon).

Fast-forward to four decades and you are pleasantly surprised to find the social-networking generation expressing the same emotions (intimations of innocent love, quirks of school life, growing-up anxieties, etc.) anchored on a modern-day idol (in a way) in a writer who hides behind the pen name Bob Ong whose book ABNKKBSNPLAko?! has become such a huge hit that it’s now on its 12th edition since it was first published in 2001 by Visprint, Inc., selling more than 240,000 copies so far, spawning eight more books, and inspiring a board game and a movie produced by Viva Films and MVP Entertainment showing nationwide starting tomorrow, Feb. 19. 

I saw the trailer (shown in all theaters during December’s Metro Filmfest) first before I read the book much later, given to me (and other movie writers) during the presscon for the movie. It was refreshing to watch Jericho Rosales playing a character far lighter than the serious ones he has been doing of late (a freedom fighter in Baler, as Manny Pacquiao in the Pacman bioflick and widower in Alagwa).

At 34 and soon to be married (to Kim Jones), Jericho is able to beautifully and credibly flesh out the lovably bungling character whom, I’m sure, any of today’s students can identify with as he journeys through school life and, notwithstanding the stumbling blocks along the way, ending up a successful teacher who finally understands the balancing act that his own teachers did to pave their students’ way to a bright future.

Even a Baby Boomer will, I’m also sure, find the book interesting, so easy to read that, like I did, you can finish it in one seating or before you turn in for the night. It’s an “unputdownable” pot boiler you can read through while waiting for your bath water to boil and simmer down a bit.

Based on the trailer, I’m positive that the movie, directed by Mark Meily, will be as engrossing as the book, with the delightful performances of, aside from Jericho, his co-stars  Andi Eigenmann, Vandolph and Meg Imperial (very funny as a tomboy).

Direk Mark and his stars swore that they don’t know who Bob Ong is and, like everybody else who has read the book (and who are trooping to the theaters tomorrow) they said that they were curious and eager to find out who he is. The joke is that  Ong is short for Bobong Pinoy, although he’s not bobo at all but rather an intelligent author gifted with wit and humor, and an infectious self-deprecating style that makes you want to read more of his works. Well, it does help that the writer prefers to be “mysterious” because that all the more whets his fans’ curiosity. J.D. Salinger was a recluse, remember (coming out only lately, but only partially, to allow a little glimpse into his very private life).

Oh by the way, for the sake of the uninformed, ABNKKBSNPLAko means Aba, NakakaBasaNaPalaAko, so I will end today’s piece in the same manner —ABNKKRNPLAko!!! (I mean, for somebody from the grayer side of the generation gap, I am able to identify with the “techie” generation  — you know, AbaNakakaRelateNaPalaAko…hehehe!) 

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