ANIKULAPO

What comes to your mind when you hear the name ‘Kunle Afolayan’, most likely epic movies right? Yes, Afolayan has indeed made a name for himself in Nollywood epic storytelling. ‘Aníkúlápó adds to his list of epic movies.

A fusion of myth and epic, Aníkúlápó takes us on a journey into the setting of the Yoruba kingdom in the 1700s with the Oyo Kingdom in focus. A young man Saro(Kunle Remi) wanders into the Oyo Kingdom as a cloth weaver seeking enterprise, he finds favor with Awarun(Sola Sobowale), a rare woman with power and influence who has an agenda of her own. Through her connect, Saro rises to much fame, finding his way into the palace of the Oyo Monarch where he falls in love with one of the king’s wives, Arolake(Bimbo Ademoye).

In a mix of intense love and romance with the king’s wife, he finds himself an enemy of Oyo where he is banished, however, not left without being beaten and killed in the process.

The movie then begins to unfold the central plot as he is resurrected by a mystical bird called the ‘Akala’ bird. In the Yoruba folklore, the ‘Akala’ bird is known to resurrect anyone who dies untimely.

With his resurrection, and the ‘Akala’ bird leaving him with a source of its power, Saro is redefined and now named ‘Anikulapo’ (a Yoruba name which means one who has death in his pockets), the plot then revolves around this as his rise to fame begins.

However, it has been said over time in history, two things can likely cause a man’s downfall; first is power, and second, women, well, the drama to follow is not far from these.

Okay, if there’s one thing we must admit about Kunle Afolayan is that he really does give us educative movies on history and epic, a breath of fresh air from the usual Nollywood stereotype. I love the fact that the movie does give us a glimpse into the classic Yoruba Kingdom setting, their mode of business, lifestyle, and family setting, showing that polygamous nature of the African settiing, however, not entirely taking our attention away from the storyline.

Afolayan said he was inspired by Game of thrones in the making of this film, it’s quite obvious in his directing that he made everything look very real, of which has been the very controversial partial nude scenes, with many believing it’s not a Nigerian/African thing, hence shouldn’t have been done, however, I believe that’s a stunt double, it necessarily might not be the nude bodies of the particular actors, however, the intensity of the storyline does warrant some realistic scenes, hence the director must have leveraged on this.

It was very nice to hear the Oyo accent by most of the actors, which further showed a speech expert must have been contracted for this. It was quite intriguing seeing Kunle Remi speak with that Oyo accent.

Am I the only one who loved the huge array of Nollywood Yoruba veterans on the screen? I loved the fact that the director made use of a host of Yoruba veterans, most of them who played the role of the Kings’ chiefs. Well, i guess they were needed, most especially for the many proverbs they’d have to speak to beautify the Yoruba communication and culture.

Nothing too much, nothing too little, Afolayan does a good job in covering any loophole. The cinematography was great as we are able to capture every image communicating that era clearly, also the soundtracks, almost everything needed in this piece was adequate enough. Kudos to the costume team as well.

While we must commend a very well done job, a question I’d like to ask Afolayan is, Was the need for the silent king really necessary?, yes, we know there are kings who have spokesmen, however, the latter part of the movie would have as much interesting as the first part which had Taiwo Hassan play the role of the Oyo king.

Also, the movie ends with the ‘Akala’ bird coming again to wake dead Saro for a second time, does this mean there is a sequel to this coming up later? Well, if it is, we hope it won’t soil this already good project done, because I feel a sequel is unnecessary, however, we would graciously receive a well done and intriguing sequel with open arms.

The cast of the Anikulapo include Kunle Remi, Bimbo Ademoye, Sola Sobowale,  Aisha Lawal, Kareem Adepoju, Adebayo Salami, Faithia Balogun, Ronke Osodi, Taiwo Hassan, Moji Olayiwola, Yinka Quadri, Dele Odule, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Eyiyemi Afolayan, among many others.

Stand Out Performer- None in particular.

They all did just well in interpreting their various roles.

Can-do-better Performer- None

Nollywood directors are beginning to carefully choose their cast, it’s difficult putting anyone into this category.