Few things come close to a perfect work of art, and while Anikulapo is not one—although Kunle Afolayan would have you draw comparisons to HBO’s Game of Thrones—the movie is commendable in many ways. That is in addition to the fact that, no one truly knows what perfect art is. The definition of it, like beauty, lies in the eyes of the beholder. This review however, deliberately delayed up till now so as to yield the fruits of my feelers, is a rounded submission of the good and the bad, based on my opinions and shared opinions of some others. If you are yet to see the movie, beware of spoilers. This review is littered with them.
Set in 17th century Old Oyo Empire, Anikulapo tells the story of an aspiring cloth weaver, Saro, in search of greener pastures. Following a teaser that shows Saro’s dead body lying in the middle of a forest—we will get to that later, the movie opens up with Saro arriving in Old Oyo Kingdom, at the turn of a festival. There he becomes rich by playing the gigolo for a wealthy businesswoman named Awarun, who graciously funded his cloth weaving business. His skill in cloth weaving would soon bring him to the palace, where the cause of his untimely death starts to unfold. On a visit to the palace, Saro—easy on the eye he was—caught the attention of the nymphomaniac queen, Arolake.
Their escapades soon came to the hearing of the King, who ordered that Saro be beaten and left for dead in the evil forest. It was here that the opening scene began to make sense. Based on a myth narrated earlier in the movie, a mystical bird (akala) possessing the power to bring the dead back to life arrived on the scene. Declaring a verdict that Saro was not fit for a second chance at life, the bird was about making away when Queen Arolake, who had slept in hiding in the evil forest lurched out of the woods and smacked the bird with a log. In the process, she gained possession of the mysterious gourd the bird had used in bringing Saro back to life. The gourd would become their source of wealth and power in the new village they eloped to.
To cut the long movie short—literally speaking, it had scenes with windy conversations, bringing us to a total running time of two hours 22 minutes—Arolake ends up jilting Saro, who had become power-drunk, taking on more wives and relegating Arolake to what seemed a position of cruel irrelevance; considering that she had left behind her palace life for this ‘stranger.’ One more thing, Arolake was not able to conceive, making her an easy target for mockery both in her former household (the palace) and among Saro’s other wives. The resulting emotional pangs, coupled with the dwindling warmth of love from Saro, festered into what eventually spelled doom for Saro.
Not disputing the degree of hardwork and finances the producers and their crew put into this movie, here are some areas where they underperformed; in no particular order. Makeup was sloppy on the tribal marks. For a movie at that budget level, we would have expected realistic makeup, but that was clearly missing on the tribal marks.
Some parts of the plot did not seem to link up well. The other queens clearly steered their children away from Arolake’s company. But just after Saro’s visit to the palace, there seemed to be a sudden bond between queen Arolake and the princess, Omowunmi. What also seems aloof is how Omowunmi ‘conveniently’ made nightly visits to Arolake’s room, right on the nights she planned her escapades for. Had these visits been a norm, should Arolake not have been more wary of the visits and possible suspicion by the princess? Not to mention that the King, whom we are told spends most nights with Arolake, happened not to visit on any of these nights. How odd? (Granted. He might have come much later in the night.)
Still baffling about Omowunmi is the swiftness with which she found out about Arolake and Saro’s affair. It seems unnatural that she would get wind of such privy information fast enough without the king or the queens knowing. If the logical excuse would be that the king found out and told the queens, then it seems odd that the palace was still at peace long enough for Arolake to escape.
No search was going on, neither were the queens who so hated her shown talking about it. Also, bringing Hakeem Kae-Kazim into the list of star-studded cast seemed pretty much a good idea, but keeping him mute all through dampened the beauty of his character. Granted, he has a British tongue. But he could have managed to utter one Yoruba line, like in the quick flashback scene with his son, the prince.
There may be other points to note, but for want of not sounding unfairly critical of a work of art that many people, including myself, happened to enjoy, I suppose the rest of the faults can be overlooked in this review. Moreover, some of the other things I would have pointed out should be rather obvious to any viewer. If I am to put a score to the Anikulapo movie, I will give it a 5/10. Kudos to everyone who put the movie together!
Owojuyigbe Mayokun is a budding journalist, creative writer and a social commentator who writes freelance articles via owojuyigbem@gmail.com
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