Movie Review

Hakunde

Hakunde is a drama-comedy that features two chief jesters in the movie scene: Kehinde Idowu aka Frank Donga and Toyin Abraham aka the Alakada woman. Tomi Adesina and Oluseyi Asurf presented a very relatable tale of a jobless and frustrated Nigerian graduate in a sentimental yet humorous way. 

Hakunde is a story of a Nigerian graduate, Akande (Kehinde Idowu), who spends three years of his life searching for a job to no avail. He leaves Lagos to Kaduna with the hope to find greener pasture. The action of the film sets in when Akande’s hope is dashed by a change in the policy of the Kaduna government. He must either return to Lagos successful or not return at all; because his sister, whose money he stole to travel to Kaduna, would make his jobless life a living hell.

The plot of this movie is very insightful. It was an expert delivery of a sensitive topic in a comical way. A bright light shines on the seemingly uncivilized conception of the northern part of Nigeria, the negative effect illiteracy and ignorance has on the lives of the people (imagine a whole community discriminating a widow, because both her husbands died from being sickle cell patients) and the advantage of social media to businesses and the general public as a whole.

Tomi Adesina has yet again displayed his avid desire to highlight the struggles and challenges that defines our everyday society in stories he writes. We saw this in his previous film “The other me”, which was centered around the life of an Autistic man and now Hakunde; the life of a jobless Nigerian graduate.

With such a strong theme; it is a sad to say that I found faults with the delivery of the movie. But I did:

The movie started really slow and dull. Apart from the energetic acting of Toyin Abraham, I waited too long for the story to kick off and was distracted most of the time by no intriguing event. The audio was not the best; It felt like they were lip syncing to a pre-recorded sound.

There were a few detours with the directing of this movie that could have easily been avoided. Like, how Aisha knew the exact room Akande was in when she went visiting him. Or, the fact that there was no information as to why Aisha was taking codeine in excess; was she just looking for a high or an escape route from her life or what? And finally, a lot of the romantic scenes between Akande and Aisha could have been cut off and the message of the movie would have still been properly communicated.

The picture had a sepia effect to it that did justice to the theme of the movie. It gave the movie the perfect gloomy and poor feel. The set design also complimented the style and tone of this movie: The village in Kaduna, the cattle and the costumes all added to portray the struggle of a young man and the life style of the northerners.

The characters:

With every effort Kehinde Idowu put in to portray Akande, the domineering persona of Frank Donga kept intruding. I mean, he must be a comic in real life, because every time the camera was on him, I always had cause to laugh. His facial expressions, the way he responded and talked generally was just too funny. He is a suiting character to behold and I feel he should be featured in more sitcom movies.

Toyin Abraham is slowly but surely creeping into our hearts and we love it. She certainly became uncomfortable being a large present boxed in a rather small package for too long and had to break loose, hence her recent features in English speaking Nollywood movies. In this movie, she effortlessly stole the spotlight with only six to seven appearances. The movie is titled Hakunde, but we were dying to see more of Sister Yewande.

I give a special thumbs up to Ibrahim’s father (Alhaji Issa Bello). He must either be used to the camera or he is just a naturally loving father, because his outpour of love towards Akande was credible. If that is how fathers accept strangers in Kaduna, I should hasten my plan for a short vacation to Kaduna.

My guy, Ali Nuhu, showed me that he is not only good as a lover boy but also as a doctor that features in not more than three scenes (those who read my last review will get mydrift). There were no hiccups this time around. He came, did his work and left. He gave real value for the money he was paid.

All other characters in the movie were okay, except for Shade Ladipo, who played the character Nike, Akande’s ex-girlfriend. Her discomfort oozed all over the scene. It felt like she could not wait for the camera to get off of her, so she could take a deep breath.

In conclusion, the movie was humorous and enlightening. On a scale from zero to five, this baby girl gives this movie a THREE, because it passed more positive messages than I have seen in any Nollywood movie in recent times. I recommend this movie to everyone, Nigerian and non-Nigerian. We all need to see this movie and realize how much enlightenment is still lacking in our society today.

Movie Trailer

Full Cast

Toyin Abraham – Yewande

Kehinde Idowu – Akande

Ali Nuhu – Waziri

Tunbosun Aiyedehin – Mrs Adejo

Maryam Booth – Binta

Tomiwa Kukoyi – Aboki

Ibrahim daddy – Ibrahim

Issa Bello – Alhaji Sule

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……….Talk2urHommie……….