By Mava John Joshua
AJAKAJU: Beast of Two Worlds, is a movie that centres around King Towobola (Odunlade Adekola) who must produce a male heir as a norm in the African tradition.
This tradition appears has relegated the female folks from been monarchs in the typical African setting.
When unfortunately his (three) wives (played by Fathia Balogun, Bimbo Akintola and Mercy Aigbe respectively) could not give him a male heir, he resorted to getting another one who perhaps might be lucky, this sets the stage for the greater half of the movie.
The King however, surprised the kingdom with a strange woman whom he says is his newest Queen, Adaralewa (Eniola Ajao) who had no roots and no one could trace where she hailed from. After sometime, she got pregnant and gave the King a son, but upon delivery she threw the child into the fire, this got the King and Kingdom upset, but the King gave her another chance. She did bear the King another son but this time throws him into a river.
Meanwhile, the king is sandwiched between his evil wives and a witch of a mother but as soon as the King’s mother was exposed, she mysteriously disappeared, leading to the climax of the movie and return of the fourth queen and the male children.
One finds it difficult to understand how children thrown into the fire and water will survive those harsh conditions just for us to see that at the end of the movie, Queen Aderalewa was able to bring the children back claiming the gods took care of them.
This movie is interesting and breath taking. It is more of a folklore than reality, placing humans and animals almost in the same pedestal. The beginning of the movie portrays a synergy between men and animals just like in the biblical garden of Eden until men broke their part of the bargain.
The costume is quite rich and the plot awesome: with intriguing storyline that portrays a majestic African folklore, a display of the grandeur and wealth of the Yoruba culture with the use of “Aso Ebi” reminds one of the great Yoruba festival of “Ojude Oba”.
The cinematograph was also something to commend, as the shots were well aligned and video quality top notch, showing that Nollywood has some measure of improvement. I love the continual usage of the Yoruba language, a paradigm shift from where we see actors in Yoruba movies interweaving English with Yoruba language.
The cast was a rich blend of mature Yoruba veteran actors, Sola Shobowale with her authoritarian demeanour did not disappoint as the “Iya Oba”.
The star studded movie is produced by Eniola Ajao and directed by Adebayo Tijani and Odunlade Adekola.
