LET’S DISCUSS THOSE NIGERIAN MOVIES, SHALL WE?

LET’S DISCUSS THOSE NIGERIAN MOVIES, SHALL WE?

Before you all roll your eyes at me, and clown me for being a Nollywood fan, I am sure that you all secretly binge watch Naija movies night and day. There is no shame in keeping up with the Nollywood scene once in a while, for entertainment purposes. Afterall, Nigerians are our brethren, therefore we should celebrate their productions with pride, while they make strides in their solid efforts to keep us well amused.

However, I dare to poke holes in the Nollywood bubble, as there are many creaks to address. But before I do so, I must put out this disclaimer that I am not hating on Nollywood at all. Infact, I am a big Nollywood fan. It is just that there are some minor concerns I wish to address that will not take away from the fact that Naija movies are dynamite. Yet, even dynamites are without marginal errors, which do require minor readjustments, in order to make them more lethal. I do believe that just a few nips and tucks are needed to perfect the movies that come from Nollywood.

Firstly, it is the way the Naija movies take at least a quarter of a century to get to the point. With Naija movies, expect a five-part series of the same, that goes on and on to infinity and then resets back at one. In short, a Naija movie cannot be shrunk to fit into one hour and fourty five minutes requirement of a Hollywood blockbuster. Yet in their defence, no African tale can be summed up in less than an hour, for it will fail to capture the essence of the narrative.

Secondly, even though the movies are scripted, it comes a time when a circumstance in a movie require for actors to go off script and embellish a little, for an intended effect. I mean, the flow of the conversation will let the audience know that the actors had to take a detour and channel off script, in order to make sense of some unique scenes. Sometimes, the production team fails to capture the totality of the scenes with scripting, forcing actors to  creatively mechanize the intended action. That is why, I do believe that some Naija movies do not require any scripting, if at all the actors are able to pick and run with the right purpose and intention the movies portray.

Thirdly, Naija movies have such lengthy discourses that the audience would cook, clean, run to the store and back, only to find the same scene playing out in the movie an hour later. I tell you, the conversations amongst the characters in a movie are too long, extremely loud, and outright ludicrous. Yet, that is not a drawback, if you consider that Africans are known to speak loudly and our conversations are almost never-ending. Like I said, scripts do not do Naija movies justice, as there is so much to be said in such a short period of time.

Do you ever experience a dejà vu moment while watching a Naija movie? It is like the last movie you watched has been remade but with a different cast on board. You keep asking yourself, “Is this not the same movie as the one I just previously watched?” From the storyline, even to the locations have a canny resemblance, or is the Nigerian topology structured to look the same? Some Naija movies are a cookie cutter to me, like same script, different cast type of a situation. Yet, somehow it always feels like the first time, when you watch these movies, as they are outright magical.

Speaking of magic, most Naija movies are drama-filled, show-casing more of the occult lifestyle. The ritual practice of sorcery is a thematic rule, sometimes taking over an entire movie, only to leave a portion of light at the very tail end of the movie. Moreover, in their attempt to portray how good always override evil, the audience is always left gawking more at the evil, because you cannot just throw the bible at the very end of the movie, and convince your viewers that good is always the winner, when evil has taken over the entire movie. I ask, where is the balance between good and evil? Nonetheless, now we know how to shield ourselves from all evil. Jesus is the answer!