By Ali Baylay

Cast: Van Vicker, Chika Ike, Desmond Elliot, Tonto Dikeh. Screeenplay: Chidi Chijioke. Director: Ikechukwu Onyeke. Sky Movies Ltd.

“They are from decent christian families aspiring to be university graduates but after admission, they find out that it is not all rosy.” that’s how the sales pitch at the back of the scabbard of the dvd of  Before the Rain goes. While intensely watching this flick of university kids with my twelve years old daughter, she made a remarkable observations that would have totally escaped my critical viewing eye: “Daddy, your African university campuses look overgrowth and shuddy,” she complained. In most cases, I stood in defence of our age old Africa, and blame it on the bias of western media, but this time I was cornered.

There in front of me on the screen, in a major Nollywood production, the principal location of a story of university students on the campus of Namdi Azikwe University, are overgrowth and unkept fields, squalid environment, classrooms with  ricketty desks that don’t measure up to a primary school in today Africa. If  the right location adds up to the beauty and believability of a movie, Before the Rain’s location doesn’t pass.

That brings us to the story itself. Before the Rain is supposedly a story of Mercy (Tonto Dikeh) and Anita (Chika Ike-she would have been smashing without the fake thick eyelid which did not march the color of her eyebrow). Both leave home in a beat-up old car, evident of a poor background, on a trip to stay on a university campus. On campus, Anita and Fabian (van Vicker) soon fall out when he discovers that Anita has similar disease his one time girl had. Mercy has a series of run-ins with the Social Lady of the campus and at one point her gang  jump her and trash her (No campus securities?). Mercy absconds from campus and comes back a different butt-kicking no-nonsense gangtser, who can have Anita’s boyfriends at will. Motive, your guess is good as mine.

Anita cries a lot in this film, but in the end laughs the last laugh, when Raymond (Desmond Elliot), who had saved her life once by taking her to the hospital and both  fall in love later, brings his father to ask Anita’s hand in marriage. Like they say in screenwriting classes, if you can’t get much out of a character, kill it. Mercy ends up going to jail, and society lady ends up on the floor of her pad, dead with a bullet wound to her forehead. Before the Rain is more about Anita, hence she survives  the campus chaos around her unscathed.

Before the Rain falls, there is thunder, a distant murmur followed by a sparkle of lightning in the sky, the tropical cloud gathers hurriedly, there’s paleness everywhere, the chicks hurry to their coops, marketters gather their wares. And the rain comes and it pours. Was there rain in Before the Rain? I guess not, for the parts of this film do not come together. There’s no rhythm established so that there could be form, shape and climax building up tension and exploding it.

MY HUSBAND WAS SLEEPING WITH OUR HOUSE MAID-Eucharia alleges
By David Ajiboye

Ace actress Eucharia Anunobi yesterday disclosed to an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, Nigeria, how her husband Charles Ekwu allegedly slept with their 13-year-old housemaid several times in their matrimonial home.

Eucharia made this allegation while giving evidence in a divorce suit she instituted against her husband before the court on grounds of infidelity, lack of care and abandonment. The suit was filed in 2007 but had suffered several setbacks until Wednesday when the trial resumed.

Eucharia, while being led in evidence by her lawyer, Michael Nwana, narrated to the court in tears how her husband slept with their 13-year-old housemaid, beat her up severally and refused to take care of their children.

Eucharia-Anunobi

According to Eucharia, she had been living happily with her husband until 2006 when she caught him having sex with their housemaid. She further told the court:  “we got married in December 2000 but have been living apart since 2006 when Charles started sleeping with our housemaid. When I discovered the incident, he was ruffled and decided to move out. Our children have not seen him since then and he has not shown concern for their upbringing.”

Eucharia also alleged that her husband was a dishonest person. “Barely three months after I conceived, I found out that he was a very dishonest person. He lies about almost everything.”

She also narrated how her husband turned her into a punching bag. “He beats me virtually everyday. I got the mark that is now permanently on my right eye from his punches.”

Eucharia is asking the court to make an order dissolving her marriage, grant custody of her children to her and award N10 million cost against her husband for the upkeep of their children.

BY DAVID AJIBOYE

Jim Iyke has been variously described as Nollywood’s playboy -a serial heart breaker, one whose motto vis-a-vis relationships with women, appears to be “use them and leave them.” Tabloid stories about his sexual escapades are in volumes, leaving many to wonder what he is looking for in a woman or if he will ever find that unique woman who will melt his heart and make him entertain the thoughts of walking down the aisle.

During a recent encounter with Jim, the issue of his playboy image and stories of his sexual liaisons were exhaustively probed. As reported before, he vehemently denied being a playboy, however, admitting that “a million women may pass through your life, but only one will stick and strike that chord in you.” It appears that that one woman may have finally materialized, and struck a strong chord in Jim Iyke’s life.

Jim Iyke

There have been some rumors and published speculations that the handsome actor may have finally found a woman of his dreams - a fact that he has neither denied nor confirmed, until now. Jim Iyke was asked explicitly if he had finally found the elusive dream woman, and if so, what qualities stood her out of the numerous others that competed for his heart, love and affection?

Smiling infectiously, Jim volunteered, “I am going to tell you everything you need to know. As a matter of fact, I am going to use this opportunity to finally break my silence over this issue. As you rightly pointed out, a lot has been written about my new found love, most of them largely speculative in nature.

“Yes, it is true. I have found the woman of my dreams, and we are in love in totality. She is the embodiment of all that I have been looking for: tall, pretty, exotic and supremely intelligent. I was looking for a woman who would complement and reinforce my intellectually curious mind -someone who would add and not subtract, and I’m happy to admit that I have finally found her. Her name is Phil, and I would leave it at that.”

How They Met, “I met Phil sometime last year in the United States. She’s of Caribbean ancestry - more specifically Jamaican. We had a movie shot in Baltimore and Phil was invited by her then friend, Ruth Okoro, to the set, and we had an instant connection. Initially, I thought I was just going to have a good time with her, and keep it moving.

But her beauty, intellect, deeply ingrained values and an abiding capacity to understand and deconstruct me struck me. No other woman I had met ever took time to learn who I was, and what elements and values define my entire being.

Phil’s love for me was not based on my fame, rather she cared much about Jim Iyke, as an individual and not Jim Iyke as a star-actor and Nollywood superstar.

Jim Iyke

I have always believed in the partnership of body, soul and the mind. Oftentimes, the women that crossed my path in the past were more interested in the partnership of the body. But Phil possesses both the intellectual ability and the traditional values that were in short supply with my recent past relationships.” In the past few months, the tabloid
newspapers had regaled their readers with the case of betrayal on the part of Jim’s new found love.

According to reports, “Phil, supplanted and betrayed her close friend, Ruth Okoro, who was said to be seeing Jim Iyke at the time she introduced her then best friend, Phil to the Nollywood Sexiest Actor.” As a result of this betrayal, the two erstwhile friends are mortal enemies today. Asked if he ever had an affair with Ruth, Jim replied in the negative.

“No. Ruth is not my kind of woman, and the notion that I was seeing her is totally preposterous. How could I be seeing Ruth, when she was even married to my boy, Philips Ehigiwina? She was sleeping around with Emeka Ike. I have values and moral ethos, and those values were in conflict with what I was seeing.

That was the reason I called Ruth’s husband in Texas, and asked him to come to Maryland and see what his wife was doing with Emeka Ike.

Ruth was caught red handed in bed with Emeka Ike, and she knows this to be the truth. All the nonsense that was written about my alleged jealousy because Ruth was seeing both Emeka and me, were pieces of junk journalism. It is true that Ruth introduced me to Phil. I didn’t need to deny that.

I saw a winner in Phil and I went for her. I have no regrets. What Ruth wanted from me, unfortunately, I couldn’t give it to her because of the fact that I have some morals in me. All the negative things she has said about Phil never bothered me because I know who she is, and I am comfortable with who she is.”

BY DAVID AJIBOYE

Sex is gradually becoming the bane of Ghana’s growing movie industry as it has become an impediment between young professional actresses and their career.   According to sources in the movie industry, sex has become one of major problems affecting the smooth progress of the industry as every year, more and more young actresses have to go through the sex ordeal before they can get a role to play.

Those actresses who wouldn’t engage in such an act have to abandon their acting dreams for different careers, hence the domination of the  industry by a few faces.

Some movie producers and directors, our sources disclosed, “have been exporting their bedroom amorous tricks with their wives onto the movie field by demanding sex from these potential young actresses before giving them roles to play. They always tell the girls that big stars in various movie industries around the world also had sex with their bosses before they were able to climb to where they are now.”

L-R: Jackie Appiah, Nadia Buari

The worst of it all is that, after having sex with some of the girls, the producers and directors at times renege on their promises, giving several excuses for their inability to fulfill those promises. While professionally trained actresses are often thrown out because they would not give in to the demands of their ‘bosses’, their colleagues who have not had any form of professional training are quick to surrender because they want to be seen on TV at all cost.

When contacted, Mr. Nii Odoi Mensah, President of the Ghana Actors’ Guild, confirmed the story. He said the issue had come to the Guild’s notice but it was difficult to track down the perpetrators especially as the ladies involved would not like to come out publicly to talk about it.

“In every organization, we have such few bad nuts who would engage in all kinds of activities. It is not nice and I must emphasize that, those involved should stop. A young, beautiful girl once complained to me that a producer wanted to have her in bed before he gives her a role to play but she refused and that was the end for her.”

Mr. Odoi Mensah continued that the problem was one of the contributory factors to the dominance of many school dropouts in the movie industry. “If you look at our industry now, it is full of many school dropouts because of these anomalies. When you look at Nigeria’s industry, it is full of professionals and university graduates,” he said. He therefore called on producers and directors to help bring sanity into the industry, stressing that it is not right to have sex with a lady before giving her a role in a movie, or make young actresses and actors pay for audition and location fees.