When I thought Kayode Kasum only had a moment out of form when he directed the boring movie Something Like Gold, he came out with Tarella. What happened to the magic that helped you deliver Ajosepo and Afamefuna: An Nwa Boi Story?
Tarella is a Cinderella story set in a mythical West African kingdom. Prince Nosa, heir to the throne, and Tarella, an orphaned maiden, must overcome numerous obstacles in their quest to find true love.
Okawa Shaznay and Timini Egbuson star as the two lovebirds in this African Cinderella story. Also starring in Tarella are Richard Mofe-Damijo, Chioma Idigo, Elvina Ibru, Ummi Baba-Ahmed, Rebecca Nengi Hampson, William Chinoyenem, Preach Bassey, Onyinye Ezekwe, William Benson, Gideon Okeke and child actor Ellyssa.
I understand that some people will enjoy this movie, but not me. I think it is a concoction of every ingredient you can get, which makes it lack originality. Sometimes, Nollywood movie producers act as if Nigeria is now short of stories to the extent that they remake and remix foreign movies. I’ll advise movie directors and storytellers to visit remote villages full of old people. There they will find people with interesting stories from the past, both mythical and real. That’s better than just relying on whatever Tarella comes to mind.
However, Tarella is strong on costumes and set designs which are applaudable. The costumes are a mix of different cultures – West African, East African and even Zulu. I guess since it’s a mythical story, anything goes. The issue I have with the costumes is that they didn’t follow any color palette. Every color was just flying about, thereby giving the film a lack of color harmony. I could see secondary and primary colors clashing. The costume designer ought to have followed a complementary color scheme of a monochromatic color scheme. That would have reduced the noise. The costume designer needs to learn from the Hollywood movie, Black Panther, which spins a tale around Africa.
Tarella reminds me of Coming To America, especially the sequel that no one asked for. Tarella is the kind of movie about Africa that is made by someone who knows nothing about Africa and tries to blend Medieval Western ideas with African stories. Sadly, the movie was made by Nigerians, perhaps the ones with a Westernized mentality. Another thing that annoyed me was the use of the English language. If this movie is about a mythical part of Africa and was created by Africans, shouldn’t the language spoken be an African language? Perhaps, Tarella was created to please Westerners.
Tarella lacks the color grading to make it look mythical. If Nollywood continues producing movies with weak looks, it can also forget about the little goodwill it’s been able to get from the international audience, which is also exposed to high-end creations from Bollywood and Korea. You can’t keep releasing low-quality content and expect loyalty.
Is Tarella worth seeing? Yes, but it won’t be enjoyed by every audience and that is why it gets a 5.5/10.
