This morning I woke up to the news that “Basira in London” will be premiering this March in Nigeria. At first I was put off by the title of the film.
“Basira in London”, at a first glance it shows the the level of mediocrity embedded in the film. Nollywood have come along way to have such title for a movie you intend to become a hit.
As lame as “A trip to Jamaica” and “30 days in Atlanta” might sound, it does not carry the aura of (a let us just do one film like that) air. When you name a film by one of it’s characters name, it says alot about how far you will go to sell the film except it’s a John Wick or Jason Bourne pedestal kind of film.
The second thing the title gives away is the slapstick format the movie will take. You might argue that “A trip to Jamaica” and “30 days in Atlanta” are both slapstick movies, but there is slapstick and then there is slapstick. This title already buried it’s movie in the first category of slapstick.
The next thing that put me off was the movie poster. Jesus Christ, In this age and time of Photoshop and Coreldraw with awesome online photo editing software like Canva, even my six year old cousin will do better than “Basira in London’s” graphics designer with just water colors.
But I didn’t complain; to who much is given, much is expected and to those that are given little……hmmmmm.
Then what broke the camels back for me was when I read that the movie had already premiered in London as far back as August 2015, and you’re just bringing it to us on March 24th 2017 almost two years later? What are you trying to say?
That a movie made by a Nigerian probably for the Nigerian audience had to be kept away from us for two good years because the Nigerian movie audience is jinxed or what? The reason this is what I don’t understand.
Let me guess, piracy, “empty barrel lo ma pariwo o” “30 days in Atlanta” that was produced before your own did well amidst this piracy infected industry, “CEO” did fantastically well, “Wives on strike” surpassed expectations, “Fifty” shattered box office records and for your information “The wedding party” is Nollywood’s highest grossing movie with over half a billion Naira.
So if your movie was that cool you would have regained your budget and lots of profits in box office earnings. Won’t even be surprised if this film that was premiered in London and kept away from the Nigerian cinemas had not already made its way into the Alaba market.
If the movie was doing so well in foreign cinemas, why bring it home in the first place, we are not seeking for such, we’ve got “Hire a man”, “Okafor’s Law” premiering soon and “The In-laws” just around the corner.
I don’t have anything against Eniola Badmus but the story around this film is plain annoying, distasteful and disappointing.
Except this movie makes it up in its acting quality and story line it should win a Nollywood Razzies award if any exists.
If we don’t grow our own, who will?
