Native Son
Franco Films presents, Ini Edo, Tonto Dikeh, Mike Ezuruonye, Ifeanyi Ikechukwu.Producer, Igboanago Chinedu Nathaniel; Director, Tchidi Chikere; Associate Producer, Tchidi Chikere; Executive Producer, Igboanago Chinedu Nathaniel.
Anyone who has ever read Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native would be reminded of the book at a first glance of the title of this movie, Native Son. And come to watch the Native Son, the story plot is so akin to the classic, Return of the Native, that you’ll predict the beginning, middle and the end of Native Son.
Native Son, however, do not have the tangled love drama of Clym Yeobright, Eustacia, Thomason, and Wildeve in Return of the Native, and in fact, there is no such tragedy as befalls Thomas Hardy’s characters.
Native Son unfolds the same way Return of the Native starts, with a wagon rolling into town with Thomasin Yeobright. In Native Son, a van boarded by an older man and a young beau, Nerissa (Tonto Dikeh) slowly taxis into a village, and two native boys are playing football in the street, oblivious of the van. In another scene, Nerissa happens on a dwell between the same native boys umpired by a bigger native son, Igwe (Mike Ezuruonye). Nerissa is flabbergasted, shocked but on the other hand, there is an unspeakable exchange of interest between her and Igwe. Igwe’s would-be village girl Tochukwu (Ini Edo) happens upon the scene.
Nerissa introduces herself as a city girl by taking out a pack of cigarette, holds one to her lips, fires it up and pulls one big puff, turns around and leaves. All at present are askance, and particularly Tochukwu, envious and jealous. If Tochukwu thinks she’s the only rooster in this rural community, she’s got to compete with an urbanite over Igwe.
The serenity of the village is broken from this point on and the pastoral story is put into a speedway mode. A chance meeting by Igwe and Nerissa on a secluded country road and, Igwe’s subsequent ride in Nerissa’s van to Igwe’s house, and Tochukwu’s chance arrival upon Igwe getting out of the van results in a brawl, that sets Igwe’s hut ablaze as both girls are locked in wrestling. This is the only tragedy in this film comparable to the snake bite and drowning of Hardy’s characters.
The village court authorized both Nerissa and Tochukwu to build back the hut and after which Nerissa leaves the village back for the city, broken-hearted. Nerissa and Igwe, however, missed each other and their paths never crossed again until twelve years later, when Igwe, now educated and married with children sitting behind his office desk lets his secretary usher in a waiting business officer who turns out to be Nerissa.
I hate to say this, this movie is not a serious production. Mike Ezuruonye’s part-one (Pidgin English) delivery is not quite convincing and I even keep thinking why an award winner like Mike could have taken part in this project. We all do pay bills, but with thirty or more films under one’s belt, it is time we start filtering through the myriads of projects that showed up on our desks. Again most supporting actors and actresses only say their lines and never actually deliver.
The whole idea of producing a story akin to a classic is ruined by one single oversight or negligence: What in the world, a purple dot doing in the frame (lens) of every shot in this 150 minutes film? The movie has this annoying purple dot following the actors wherever they go. One thing comes to mind that either some cinematographer was in training or, Nollywood is not paying attention to dailies, or at best they do not really care what the end product turns out to be. This production isn’t an award-winning one.