‘King of Boys’ had all you had ever asked for in Nollywood

Let me start with a verdict. ‘King of Boys’ in 2018 is for me the best of Nollywood; arguably one of the best in the history of the industry. I was reluctant to see the movie after social media went berserk in praises for the movie. I thought it could be PR. However I was curious to know how a Nollywood film will offer almost three hours and yet no much complaint. ‘King of Boy’ did live to the positive reviews on social media with quality performance; its cinematography: quality picture, special effects, the movement of the camera, and lighting; the plot; the story itself which is the high point of the movie. I was so entangled with the story that I failed to look out for other things for instance, how the sound track contributed to the whole narrative.

The film was directed Kemi Adetiba and featured Sola Sobowale as Alhaja Eniola Salami, Adesua Etomi as Kemi Salami, Jide Kosoko, Osas Ighodaro as Sade Bello, Illbliss, Reminisce as Makanaki, Toni Tones as Young Salami, Akin Lewis, Demola Adedoyin, Sani Muazu, Paul Sambo as Nurudeen Gobir among others.

The movie is a crime thriller that critically comments on the social and political life of the country. There have been several crime thrillers but ‘King of Boys’ had a refreshing perspective by combining crime, politics, survival, family ties and politics into a coherent whole. I had pointed earlier that the cinematographer did well. The few examples that easily come to mind was the movement of the camera as Gobir (Paul Sambo) noticed the expensive watch on Inspector Shehu’s wrist (Sani Muazu). The camera’s focus on the watch turned out to be deliberate. The scene where Makanaki told one of his boys to bite the table for not reporting the case of theft is not just only ironical because they just stole the money but came with a successful special effect as the boy’s teeth were seen scattered everywhere when Makanaki kicked the boy’s head while he was still biting the table. The scene of the fire was convincing. The creation of smoke inside the cell when Gobir went to recue Alhaja Salami from the inferno was creditable. The movement of the camera from the crowd outside the court when Alhaja Salami was granted bail to Kemi Salami (Adesua Etomi), Alhaja Salami, and Kitan Salami’s Alhaja’s only son; and how it created suspense by concealing who was exactly shot added so much suspense. Viewers were left guessing who was shot among the trio by the cinematographer who brilliantly delayed revealing who was shot by preceding the revelation with breathtaking minutes of wailing in slow motion. There is this other scene where the cinematography invented stream of consciousness in the movie, the camera was brilliantly moved in this scene where the dead people in Alhaja Salami’s life came to reprimand her.

Before I get carried away like I did when seeing the movie, it is pertinent to say the movie is not perfect. There were few things that didn’t seem right. In the first meeting of the kings of the underworld after Kemi Salami advised her mother to call a meeting, I noticed there is an echo in that scene. It leaves the sound aspect of the film with a speck. Kitan Salami’s line ‘I thought you said you loved me’ after he discovered his girlfriend was involved in the assassination of her sister sounded clumsy and stupid to me. Maybe the way he said it or the lines itself made it sounded silly and inappropriate. On the other hand, I love the comic relief one of Makanaki’s boys brought to the movie during the armed robbery operation. One of the soldiers guiding the senator’s home was fidgeting having been overpowered and overwhelmed by the underworld boys. Seeing the soldier fidget and afraid, one of the robbers said in pidgin, ‘And na army o. the thing tire me sef!’ Does this mean anything to you particularly in this era our security operatives most times show their strength to unarmed civilians but are nowhere to be found when duty calls?

One peculiar thing about the movie’s dialogues was their rich language repertoire. There was a lot of code mixing and code switching from English to Yoruba, Igbo, and pidgin. They employed slangs to spice up the language and to buttress the ‘street’ in the film. This brings me to the performances. Sola Sobowale and Adesua Etomi put up brilliant performances. Adesua was casted in a new light, and it is refreshing to know she can act very tough. Toni Tones also killed it as she played young Eniola. And there was the incredible Remilekun ‘Reminisce’ Safaru (Makanaki) who showed a lot of promises. The guy is a brilliant actor; it is hard to believe ‘king of Boys’ is his first.

Let me now bring home the bacon. A good move script/story must be total in that they must be compelling and sustaining, having verisimilitude, and must be a material that leaves you thinking. ‘King of Boy’ is a tale of two different stories, one of a burgeoning present, the other in the distant past. There was no boring use of flashbacks. It was two parallel but complimentary stories of a woman’s past and present. The movie had this unpredictability and shocking twists that defiled viewers’ speculation or prediction. I love the poetic justice that characterised the film and the fact the movie is a stark fictive identification with social realities. In fact one can easily identify one of the characters in the movie in a well known king maker in Lagos state who runs the state from his sitting room. This man word is ‘authority’ as the character in the movie declared. ‘King of Boys’ is worth your time, money and popcorn.