One would expect a particular level of standard when it comes to cinema movies, but with Nollywood movies like Dejavu, you’d question if there’s a standard. What do I mean?
Nollywood movie, Dejavu is the story of a couple dealing with the issue of paternity fraud. Although the DNA proved that the children weren’t for the husband, the wife insisted she had never cheated on her husband. But, expectedly, the husband and the family didn’t believe her, and they asked that she swears an oath with their deity, whom they thought would give instant judgment.
To their shock, nothing happened to her, but then, it was still a fact that the children weren’t for her husband. So the question then is; If she didn’t cheat and the child is her child, how did she get pregnant for another man? The film centers around unraveling this mystery.
If the Nollywood movie; Dejavu were showing on AFMagic Yoruba, it would have been a fantastic film. But, it is a NO No for a cinema standard. The storyline isn’t just bare. It is mostly unbelievable. Should we say the author was trying to point out that strange happenings are mostly unbelievable? Okay, let’s leave it at that. A believable story or not, the plot was bare, with no extra effort to add twists, high moments and even low moments to it. More efforts should be put into writing Nollywood stories, we are tired.
The directing isn’t bad, especially for a plot like that. However, one will expect that even if these details can be ignored for normal home videos, they would at least do better in the cinema. Why would a crew member be showing in a scene? Did the director or editor miss that part? Or did they think we wouldn’t notice it? No problem. Regardless, one has to acknowledge the pace of the film. There weren’t so many long or unnecessary scenes, and that’s a plus.
The acting is one good thing that happened to the Nollywood movie, Dejavu. The actors are undoubtedly good, from Adedimeji Lateef, to Adebimpe Adedimeji (mo’bimpe) to Yemi Blaq. For a fact, every single actor in the movie did a good job. If not for anything, that kept a majority in the cinema to finish seeing the movie.
The Cinematography wasn’t bad, but the DOP should be sanctioned for allowing his crew member to show inside one of the scenes. Beyond that, it wasn’t bad at all. The make-up and costuming weren’t bad either. Good enough for a cinema standard.
In all of these, it is good to see a Yoruba movie in the cinema, and this is a sign that with consistency and intentional effort, we should see more with way better standards. For the ratings, Dejavu would get 5/10
