By Kesandu Egburonu
“The labour of our heroes past, shall never be in vain…” That’s a line from the Nigerian national anthem and one that epitomized everything we talked about in the first draft of this article. Having glowed about the glory days of Nollywood, I am sure you all would have forgiven me for snapping and getting into a rage over how we fell from grace to grass, as well as the resultant mediocrity that followed.
I stayed in that rage for quite a while and steered clear of Nigerian films up until November, 2019. This was the month when the movie, ‘Living In Bondage: Breaking Free’ was released. Having seen the original version, I was, somehow, convinced this one was, also, going to be a truck-load of fun, even without seeing it. Ramsey Nouah was in-charge of this one and, with a cast comprising of Bob-Manuel Udokwu, Kanayo O. Kanayo and Kenneth Okonkwo, what could possibly go wrong?
I actually paid to go see that movie in a cinema in Lagos. I took my girlfriend along as insurance: In case the films flops, the romance will make up for my loss! Of course, she didn’t know this. She probably thought I was just being a sweet romantic boyfriend, but, trust me when I say that, upon leaving the cinema that day, I made up my mind that the sleeping giant had finally woken up and that Nollywood was about to take a positive turn once again.
This realization drew me back to see more of the recent Nollywood films. I saw ‘Figurine,’ ‘The Wedding Party’ 1 & 2, ‘October 1’ and a few others. I was thoroughly impressed by them and the marked improvement I was seeing. ‘King of Boys’ did the final convincing for me and the very fact that Netflix took on the 2nd part of the series speaks volume of how good the movie was. It was our way of saying, “this is our Nigerian mafia crime movie.” I loved it.
This brings me to ask the Nollywood movie makers a crucial question: Why didn’t you guys do this all along? Why wait so long? A Nollywood observer I quizzed on the matter pointed out that a couple of new faces on the scene have contributed to this marked improvement in quality and I couldn’t agree any more. For once in a long time, I can finally boast about the Nigerian movie industry and say we are doing good things or, at least making the effort.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing and I wouldn’t get ahead of myself and say that we have arrived just yet, but, I can say it is a work in progress and the progress is quite satisfactory. There are still some questions marks here and there, with a lot of room for improvement.
Just take the movie, ‘Gangs of Lagos,’ for instance. I wrote an article critiquing the movie and rightly so. The slander on the Nigerian culture there was appalling and showed the dire need for research. Creative writing is a beauty, but, research on the subject matter is just as important. It helps unravel the depth of a subject matter and bring to light so many facts. That way, you do not misguide or misinform your viewers.
On the other hand, films like ‘Brotherhood’ show that, at least, the era of lazy writing is fast fading away.
You see a film like that and can tell, immediately, that the writer put sweat into that work. However, we need to look at the overall value of movie making: From the plot development; character scheming; setting; casting and a whole lot of other areas. The sad thing is: One negative can stain a lot of positives and that is all the more reason no stone must be left upturned.
One other area we still need to work on is our attention to details. Right now, that area is not up to scratch. As beautiful as the wow factor of a film can be in giving it the edge, what sets apart the great movies from the others is the attention it pays to details. They may appear tiny, but, put together, those become powerful ingredients for that delicious pot of soup.
In the area of casting, our movie guys are really doing a great job. In the aspect of cinematography, I see a steady improvement that was lacking before. As far as locations and gadgets/equipment go, that, too, has positively been on display of late. In terms of projecting our culture, our recent films are doing a lot of justice to that, while not coming across as mentally lazy at the same time.
In all, we are not far away from the promised land. Even Rome wasn’t built in a day. Little drops of water forms the mighty ocean. In the case of Nollywood, those little drops of water needs to drop steadily and consistently if we ever hope to get to the level that the more established movie industries like Bollywood and Hollywood are. For now, let us sit back, enjoy the ride and hope the drivers don’t get drunk down the road and lose their way!