Film One, Remote Productions, presents Efa Iwara (Kolade), Richard Mofe-Damijo (Ejiro), Bimbo Manuel (Mr. Tayo), Daddy Showkey (Croaker), Patrick Diabuah (Bassey), Uche Nwaefuna (Efe), Eriakha Edgar (Tega), Tomi Odunsi (Wando) Koffi Tha Guru (Tosin), Sadiq Daba, Gregory Ojefua (Samir). Written/Directed Toshin Igho; Producers, Don Amope, Bryan Dike; Executive producers, Toshin Igho, Olubianga Obadina, Chioma Ude, Ash Hamman; Director of Photography, Toshin Igho. (C) 2019
“Death is for the living and not for the dead so much.” Gates of Heaven
What do Seven and Zero Hour (2020) have in common? Both films are about corporate greed and the illegal takeover of a conglomerate. In Zero Hour, Danlami Davou (Richard Mofe-Damijo) is the rogue uncle (antagonist). He goes on a rampage, secretly killing anyone related to the company, and eventually tries to eliminate the innocent heir, Zamani Davou (Alex Ekubo), to the Galaxy conglomerate, so he can take over the company. He did not survive.
In Seven, Ejiro (Richard Mofe-Damijo) plays the protagonist against Bassey (Patrick Diabuah). The antagonist tries to kill the rightful young and carefree inheritor, Kolade (Efa Iwara), to the Olympus Properties. A bit of the format used here resembles Chief Daddy, especially with the opening sentences of the two wills. “If you are watching this, it just means that I’m dead.“ The reading of both choices categorically state actions and advice family members should follow or forfeit his or her share of the estate. Richard Mofe-Damijo was the executor of Chief Daddy’s will. Here in Seven, he is at the table, at the reading of Mr. Tayo’s (Bimbo Manuel) will.
Mr. Tayo’s cancer gets worse by and by, and he has a worry that his only son Kolade is incapable of taking care of his company after he dies. Kolade does not seem cut out for such a profound responsibility. He is a severe marijuana smoker, always with friends, boys, and girls, with whom he parties all night. He doesn’t care; there’s always enough spending money in his account. That is not what concerns Mr. Tayo, for, “They must see what we used to smoke on in our days,” Ejiro comments and laughs aloud with Mr. Tayo on Kolade’s lifestyle of drugs and drinks. Both have been there and done that.
What concerns Mr. Tayo is that he has not seen a grain of seriousness in his one and only son to take over his business empire. Mr. Tayo must test Kayode’s ability, the same way Chief Otueko (Kanayo O. Kanayo) did his son, Bassey (Olu Bankole Wellington). When he sends him to the NYSC to learn firsthand the rigors of life in Up North (2018). Only that Kolade didn’t fall in love with Ajengule like Bassey and his “copper love,” as Pastor Theophilus would call the NYSC romance experience, in My Wife and I.
Upon his father’s death, the spending money dries up, and when he reports to the company the next day, Bassey calls security to throw him out. Bassey fires Ejiro, Mr. Tayo’s driver, his secretary, and even sits behind Mr. Tayo’s oak desk and takes down the matriarch’s pictures and all. This got to Kolade. He only has one option, though: Obey the supplementary condition in his father’s will: spend seven days in Ajengule before you come back and take over the company.
Eighty percent of Seven takes place in this ghetto of a section of Lagos, which is how Ajengule is essential to the story. At first, Kayode is dismissive and blind because his father added the ‘seven’ days condition to the will. He ventures, though, but his ordeal starts with his arrival. He gets robbed, sleeps on the streets, runs from Alice Cookshop with the bowl of food, gets beaten up by her, and picks a joint (he has been missing his smoke) on the ground. After two pulls on it, the police arrest him and lock him up to be bailed by Ejiro.
Ejiro discloses to Kolade the importance of Ajengule and that Mr. Tayo was born in Ajengule, an orphan. He had survived the hard knocks of the ghetto. He became a self-made millionaire and a benefactor to the orphanage and the mental institution in Ajengule. Everybody knows and respected Mr. Tayo, but none knew Kolade as his son; hence, he was kicked around. Ejiro takes him around the market. Kolade is astonished about the respect the ghetto residents accord his father and Ejiro. Some apologies for the unkind treatment they had given Kolade.
By and by, Bassey in Abuja head office is conniving and plotting to get rid of Kolade as he has already assumed ownership of Olympus Properties. Mr. Tayo and Ejiro have come a long way. Back then, they were all gangsters, smoke, drink, and barter girls together and all. Ejiro had walked to Mr. Tayo when fortune had started smiling at him and asked for help. The only available service Mr. Tayo could offer him was for him to be his driver. They had come from there to the present day as a bosom friend: drink together, play table tennis together, and drink some more, and Tayo seeks Ejiro’s advice on serious issues, and in fact, considers him as next of kin and even award him his Land Cruiser in his will.
Bassey’s goons he hires in Ajengule to get rid of Kolade must contend with the old and most potent, assumingly retired gangster, Ejiro. Hell breaks loose in the ghetto of Ajengule. There is a showdown with Croaker’s (Daddy Showkey) gang in Issa’s bar (Saddiq Dabba with the striking features since his appearance in the movie, October 1). Bassey has offered 500,000 Naira on Kayode’s head, and when he finds that the deal is not working, he raises the stake to 2 million Naira more on Kayode’s head. To put Ejiro in a bind, Croaker kidnaps his son, Tega (Eriakha Edgar). The situation gets worse. Ejiro must free his son from Croaker, but at the same time make sure Kayode is safe. The following scenes run like the closing and final stage in Hoodlums (2011) between Swaggita (Prince Osei) and Naomi (Bibi Bright). Mano-o-mano.
One significant element of this movie I can take home is I have always considered Richard Mofe-Damijo, the Arnold Schwarzenegger of Nollywood. Giant in his own right. I have never seen him cry, even in the face of danger. My gosh, I see his tears dropping on his cheeks over the coffin of his one and only friend, Mr. Tayo. He has taken him from the ghetto and made him a private chauffeur and consultant to a multi-millionaire? What then could he not do for Tayo or Tayo’s leanage? He will take any hit or a slice of a knife cut on his arm for the sake of Mr. Tayo.
There’s no mysticism attached to this title. Take it from me. It is not like Alladin stories we read in Arabian Nights or Se7en (1995) movie: Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt chase after the serial murderer, Kevin Spacey. Who targets people with seven deadly sins. Believe me, lots of stories are based on number seven. Most religions respect number seven. It is even proclaimed by notable faiths that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. After all, none of that in this film. Mr.Tayo only wanted his son Kayode to spend seven days in Ajengule. It is a completion of a ritual for his son to know and bond with his father’s origin, after which he’ll become the legitimate owner of the Olympus Properties. Seven ends on a good note. I like that.