I promised myself not to see an indigenous movie in the cinema after some Nigerian movies showed me shege, but somehow, with the actors line up of the Nollywood movie, Orisa, I found myself at the cinema yet again, watching an indigenous movie.
I know the question on your mind. I know you want to ask me if it was worth my time or not. Well, I guess we’d find out after this review.
Orisa is the story of a King (Odunlade Adekola) who suddenly ran mad. In the middle of the whole village dealing with his madness, a warrior Komokomo (Femi Adebayo), was raiding his land and taking his people captive. For some reason, komokomo seems to have something with Balogun (Muyiwa Ademola) as he specifically asks the Balogun to see him in 3 days and in a bid to let him know he’s serious, he kills his son.
Angrily, Balogun goes to attack komokomo, but komokomo kills him instantly. What shocks us is that, komokomo regrets killing him, as he reveals Balogun is the only witness he has. The question then is; what is between komokomo and Balogun? Why was the King mad? What’s the relationship between the king’s madness and komokomo raiding the land? Does the king even get cured of his madness?
All these questions are not for me to answer, they are for you to find out in the cinema.
Now to the real gist!
Let me stay by saying; I love the fact that contrary to the picture the title Orisa gave in my head, the movie wasn’t full of unnecessary incantations and forced indigenous nuances (those things were present, but there weren’t all over the place).
I would have loved to give this comment to every aspect of the movie, but yet again, we had a good movie with a storyline void of depth. I have so many questions for the writer, but I’d just ask a few here.
How is it that a set of people easily destroyed a whole king? For people deep in Yoruba culture, I understand that there are different terrestrial beings holding forth the king, yet just one terrestrial force was able to run him mad, and they did so very easily.
That being said, I think the relationship between komokomo and the king is a very weak defense to whatever it is komokomo was doing. The writer could honestly have thought of something better.
Also, character development was poor, making me wonder if the writer thought this story through. For instance, there was never a visible fallout between Balogun and Kabiyesi, so how come Balogun was suddenly against him? If anything was meant to destroy the king, it should be the fact that he was a rapist because that was the most visible flaw. The king was so poor that he needed just powder to make him fall. I could continue, but I’d stop here for the writer to reflect on what could have been a standard story but was watered down.
Orisa: The writer
Despite all these, I must commend how the writer beautifully infused comic scenes and dialogues in the middle of a seemingly tragic story. Woli Agba was enjoyable to watch, and I sort of hoped to see him more in the movie, but the little time I did was worth it.
The director did a good job with both the actors and the scenery as a whole. It gave me the indigenous vibe I expected to see. But, Komokomo saying “mi o fe soro” became irritating at some point. Just felt like some forced rhymes, but then, let’s forgive it.
The acting was the icing on Orisa. Well, I didn’t expect less seeing a combination of Odunlade Adekola, Femi Adebayo, Muyiwa Ademola, Shaffy Bello, Dele Odule, Jide Kosoko and Eniola Ajao, amongst many others. They all brought their A Game, and although I saw the Ageshinkole vibe in Femi Adebayo, I still loved his energy in the movie. Every actor, including the ones who only appeared in a few things, gave it their all. If there’s one thing that held the movie down from start to finish, it would be the acting.
Overall, the costume, makeup and set weren’t bad at all, too and as a whole, I think the production team did a good job.
Yes, I enjoyed watching Orisa, but much more could have been better, especially with the storyline. Let’s give it a 7/10
