IJAKUMO: THE BORN AGAIN STRIPPER

THOUGH VERY ENTERTAINING BUT IJAKUMO COULD JUST PASS FOR A POLISHED AVERAGE NIGERIAN MOVIE.

After seeing the sensual and suspense-filled thriller and most especially the premiere of Toyin Abraham’s Ijakumo: The Born Again Stripper, I had a date set with the cinemas to see this release; well, after the 2 hours running time, I couldn’t help but feel I had just seen one of those average Nigerian movies; however something unique made it stand out which made it a very entertaining watch; well let’s find out in this review.

Ijakumo tells the story of Jide, a con artist modeled as a Pastor, he is part of a cult who determine the affairs of his church. His past however would haunt him when he is on the trail of Ashabi, a lady he jilted in the past, Ashabi is the daughter of an Ifa priest. In a bid to take him down, knowing Jide’s soft spot for women, Ashabi hires a stripper to take him down by seducing him and retrieving a drive that contains information of Jide’s ill-gotten wealth, was the stripper successful in this? Did Ashabi get revenge at the end? You’d just have to see for yourself.

Well, while I’m one of the biggest Toyin Abraham’s fans, my love for Toyin’s work is just amazing, have you seen “Prophetess”? However, on this, equity would have me speak fairly. I believe Ijakumo could have been better scripted.

First, it is impressive to see a well polished Nigerian movie with indigenous powers showcased,however not at the expense of a well scripted storyline, for example if Ashabi had powers to teleport, then she really had no need of the stripper she hired to access Jide’s house, I was satisfied with what I had watched until I saw Ashabi teleport towards the end of the movie and I was like “what?”

Well, truthfully, Kunle Remi(Jide) killed his role totally, I loved his realness, he was quite raw, and occasionally in the cinema, you could hear laughs and claps almost everytime he spoke, he totally got us entertained. However, I got thinking, couldn’t the storyline had had Jide have some supernatural powers as well since he belonged to a cult, because the cult setting showed from the onset of the movie did look like a cult with some supernatural powers, if not there was no need of having that sort of setting for the cult meetings.

A quick message to the director, well, in as much as that fight scene towards the end wasn’t relevant, however, the directing didn’t help either, c’mon if there must be a crowd/fight scene in a movie, then it must be well coordinated and authentic. Please, what was that choreography we saw towards the end of Ijakumo?

Also, it appeared the director was so eager for the movie to be released than having a watch review before its release. For instance why did Junior Ashabi say she was pregnant for two weeks, and the subtitle told us two months? That was a fist sized error.

Anyway, The choice of actors is well commended, especially the ones that had to transition; it was smooth, however the lady who acted the younger Ashabi wasn’t so convincing, her English looked too polished for a lady who could have been typically classified as very indigenous, need I also say Olumide Oworu struggled with his Yoruba speaking on the other hand?

Good make-up is one of the highlights of Ijakumo, with the tribal marks and injured face well depicted. Need I say again, I really enjoyed the dialogues. The movie ended with almost everyone of us applauding a movie that had left us entertained.

Among notable cast in this were Toyin Abraham, Kunle Remi, Bimbo Akintola, Okusanya Lolade, Olumide Oworu, and many others

Ijakumo was a good watch, but the writer and director obviously didn’t do a thorough job, they ended up only scratching the surface.

Star Performer- Kunle Remi

Kunle Remi totally executed his role flawlessly. There really isn’t much to deduct from such class act

Can do better Performer- Nil