By Kesandu Egburonu
The Nigerian movie industry is one that has and still provokes mixed reactions both home and abroad, as well as across generations. Also tagged “Nollywood,” the industry has come a long way—from the days of black and white, up until the era of coloured television. Welcome to Africa’s biggest movie industry—one we will be evaluating in here.
I grew up a big movie freak. In fact, if I’m being holistic, an overall television freak. I don’t why I haven’t made it into the prestigious Guinness Book of Records for being the World’s biggest television/movie addict and; how I supernaturally escaped using recommended eye glasses despite my steady exposure to screen rays! It baffles me but, I’ll live!
In my beautiful childhood, I saw series like ‘Checkmate.’ That series still makes Bob-Manuel Udokwu the only worthy candidate for any Academy award, at least in my eyes! The man killed his role, as did Richard Mofe-Damijo and Kunle Bamtefa, Nobert Young and the rest. I still feel the series was the beginning of the long walk into the Nigerian Entertainment Hall of Fame for many of the cast. Brilliant movie it was and well worth its title.
Ah! How about “Things Fall Apart”? I don’t mean the book: I mean its screen adaptation. Oh my! My dad purchased the video cassette of it—from Part 1-13. Yes, it was that long! That was the true emergence of Pete Edochie—who lit up his lead role of ‘Okonkwo’ with some fiery fire and showmanship yet unseen. Seeing Ikemefuna’s death on screen still breaks my heart till date, though. “That boy calls you Father; do not have a hand in his death,” Okonkwo was warned, but, he still struck the poor boy with his machete nonetheless. He was always too scared to be labeled a “coward.” It is why I still have a quarrel with Pete Edochie up until today. He just has to apologize for that. That’s the only way I’m forgiving him!
It would be sacrilege and an offense punishable by the entertainment law courts, if I didn’t mention ‘Living In Bondage.’ Of course, I don’t mean ‘Breaking Free’–its modern day part 2. The original was a classic. It was the perfect narration of King Solomon’s proverb of “vanity upon vanity.” These days, Kenneth Okonkwo—the man who played the lead character, Andy Okeke—is more in the spotlight for his political views and support for Labour Party’s Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, but, that film right there, was what put in the spotlight to begin with. It was a masterpiece!
I feel someone about to flash me a badge and waive an arrest warrant in my face. You know what? Save your energy. I mentioned it: ‘New Masquerade.’ Haha! You thought I was going to forget that, right? Hell no! Now, can you take the handcuffs off? Thank you! That sitcom was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Mom would make sure dinner was consumed and digested already before setting us loose on that screenplay. Failure to do that could very well see you laugh so hard, you just might find yourself coughing out some food in the midst of it all! Crazy stuff and no exaggerations at all.
I could go on and on and mention, ‘Full Moon,’ ‘Isakaba,’ ‘Hostages,’ and many other series and movies, but, I know you get my point already. Those were the good old days: When quality was placed at a premium and fans felt fully satisfied that their time wasn’t wasted, but rather, well spent. You’d go to school and spend the first minutes or hours gleefully analyzing the previous night’s screenplay with your mates. While doing that, your teachers would be up in their staff rooms doing their own adult version of what we were doing. It wasn’t “different strokes for different folks” as the saying goes. It was same strokes for same folks!
What happened afterwards? Why did we, somehow, loose our way down the line rather than build on what we had? Nollywood lost its way so much so, that seeing its movies became a most tedious and annoying task! Gosh! The Zeb Ejiros and Fred Amatas gave way to a whole lot of quack movie producers and writers who just made the scene annoying for viewers. We lost faith, belief and respect for an industry we once held dear and upheld so high. A disgrace followed. A real tale of “grace to grass.”
In the latter years that followed and I wouldn’t even care to dignify the disastrous movies by mentioning their names. We sunk to new lows. You’d see a screenplay and instantly tell the end from the very beginning! Wow! Amazing! But it was true. The soundtracks didn’t help their cause either: You’d hear soundtracks that was basically explaining everything that had previously happened in the film; that was happening and; will still happen in the course of the movie! It was appalling to say the least. Suddenly, we couldn’t get anything right—even the basics.
I had always followed foreign screenplays, so, I didn’t have any problem forsaking my homeland and following the white man’s footsteps. I ate off their tables and enjoyed what they served—pure quality—not whatever my people back home thought they were doing in the name of movies. I know I wasn’t the only one on this boat. We were minions and rightly so.
This long period of Nollywood’s utter fall from grace to grass lasted quite a long while, but, can we now say those years are now fully behind us? Can we say that, in this modern era and in recent times we’ve retraced our steps and decided to put our house in order? Find out in the second part of this article. Suspense! I know. Suck it up! After all, it’s an article on screenplays you are glued to! WINK.