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Irapada; redeeming naija movies?

Written by Abraham Adegoke

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

Yeah, I finally got to see the Irapada movie after having seen the trailer on many occasions before it was released to the market a couple of weeks ago. The achievements of the movie are no news anymore. They are also contained in my last article about the movie on this site.

Irapada, to a large extent, is a departure from the normal kind of movies we're getting used to seeing here at home which have made some of us eternal fans of Hollywood and Bollywood.

One of the things you'll never be lost on about the movie is that it is a careful and compact work of professionals who dedicated professional time and experience into making the movie…you'll never miss that in the movie.

From the camera shots and angles to the lighting on to the actors and actresses who were part of the movie, you'd see class even with the two debutants: Deola Oloyede and Jothan Ayuba. Of course, you should know that veterans like Toun Oni, Laide Adewale, Lola Idije and Kunle Afolayan himself would deliver at any time.

Written by John Izuchukwu and adapted by Kunle Afolayan, Irapada tells the story of a young successful building contractor who, to his chagrin, refuted the need for him to perform some 'traditional redemption rites' which made his foster mother visit him unannounced in his northern Nigeria residence.

The young contractor named 'Dewunmi, instead barely gave his foster-mother (Toun Oni) audience about the issue and didn't hesitate to send her back to her home. She however didn't make it back home as she died in an accident on her way.

Right after…things took a downward plunge, he lost a contract he had gone into debt to execute and subsequently lost a worker of his in his bid to reclaim the contract.

Watching the movie, you can't help but be involved. The intermittent use of the three major languages in Nigeria in the movie added some kinda flavour to it. The scenes were well synchronized with each one leading into the other.

Furthermore, the movie highlighted certain aspects of our national and individual lives. As the former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu noted at the launch of the movie, the use of a Nigerian Train in the movie is a strong indicator that the rail transport sector can be resuscitated.

The relationship between Dewunmi{Kunle Afolayan} and Shehu {Jotham Ayuba} in the movie indicates that the Nigerian entity is not only workable but has also been working...tribal differences might soon be a forgotten issue in our country...hopefully.

Everything was going well in the movie until it jolted us back into reality…no matter what…it's still a Nigerian movie. How? Well, there was a commercial break and then we saw clips of what, presumably, would be in the second part of the movie.

Seeing those, something was roused in me saying there is a wrongdoing somewhere. Then I looked at the time on the Disc player and it was exactly an hour and thirteen minutes. What? This is supposed to be a movie, not a documentary and not a TV series…in this aspect, Kunle Afolayan could have done better.

I mean, a movie should not be in parts except it is absolutely impossible to be presented in a single part which should at least last up to 90 or 120 minutes…but it's the trend here to have three parts of a movie with each part lasting just about 55 to 60 minutes.

The message passed with such productions is that the producers are, more than anything else, concerned about the amount of money they can get from a single effort...damning quality and audience satisfaction.

Invariably, the audience might feel cheated and exploited which is not too good for patronage. Pitiably though, Irapada seem to have fallen into this same ditch.

Anyways, we won't want to completely blame the producers now...let's wait for the second part...maybe it would be justifiable.

In conclusion, we wouldn't want to join the league of reviewers who score movies. It is our belief that, movie-making, just like other works of art, could be multi-dimensional...meaning what I think about it cannot exactly be the same with your own opinion. So, we would like to say Irapada is a step in the right direction for our movie makers...and just hope it is the beginning of the redemption of our movie-making industry... then we would roll out the drums. Thumbs up.

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Comments (6)

	1. Written by Shola Amode on 27-08-2008 16:08 - Guest
	why should there be a part 2? makes absolutely no sense. Greed is d word!

	2. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on 28-08-2008 02:30 - Guest
	nice film i think d film is nice and d storyline is cool

	3. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on 29-08-2008 18:26 - Guest
	nice film Kunle Afolayan,go get busy with another movie with no part 2 in this age and time,haba!

	4. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on 02-09-2008 05:50 - Guest
	nice film i actually watch the film but i was totally dissapointed at the conclution of the film, how in hell will there be part two and the film actually have a poor production ending.

	5. Written by Mariam on 02-09-2008 18:21 - Guest
	nice film i just saw Irapada,why part 2? The hype of the movie is too much as its not all that,go watch Modupe Temi.....

	6. Written by Yetunde Oduwole on 22-09-2008 15:48 - Guest
	nice film "Irapada" definitely got great publicity from u Kunle, why part 2? makes absolutely no sense...

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