Tuesday, October 16, 2007

coffee break

When the whole country was busy getting charged by both railaphobia and railamania, (am told sinners have railaphobia and the righteous have railamania :- according to Joe Nyaga!), two , nay 3 nice things slipped in unnoticed by many. both NTV and citizen introduced new local productions in their menu. i must say that citizen continues to make me proud. they continuously show their confidence in Kenya and our kenyanness.

While NTV's production 'The Cobra Squad' looks like a Hollywood's production replete with stunts, guns, accent, glamour launch and all that goes with it, citizen, stole my love with their down to earth, truly Kenyan story of papa shirandula and inspekta mwala. well i dont like inspekta mwala as the jokes are rather stale and far fetched. but papa shirandula looks very real and most of the people i have talked to can quickly identify with one or two aspects of show. i know most people will cite the accent and watchman role of 'papa' as being a perpetuation of the stereotype of luhyas being only watchmen and cooks. however we must give it to Bukeko and co for a production well done, good storyline, acting and production.

on the other hand the cobra squad written by none other that the government spokesman (thumbs up to the man for leading from the front) is to me a disappointment and reminds me of the likes of prezo, nonini, nameless etc who represent artists who opt to be copy cats instead of doing things that appeal to our local taste. citizen TV is the only station that has a show for local musicians who do real local music, the likes of ken wamaria, emily nyaimbo, dola kabrry et al. NTV would not be caught dead show casing such talents preferring instead to go for copy cats in their shows.

on top of 'papa' and 'mwala' citizen also has a 'tahidi high', which according to me is very well done actually.

ooh sorry i forgot to mention that KBC has also always had 'local' flavor in vitimbi, vioja, makutano etc. but KBC destroyed their brand with too much partisan politics and its forgivable to forget them!

6 comments:

  1. I must comment Dr. Mutua and the NTV crew for a first rate show in terms of cinematography and granted that it�s similar to a West African movie (& much time was spent on a car chase that went nowhere � it appears $$ was not a problem.) But, it�s nice to have some local content. Hope it stands up for the rest of the season,

    Have not seen Papa Shirandula though, the trailer was hilarious

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  2. Tahidi high is well done.Good acting.Inspekta Mwala is stale.
    Papa Shirandula rips me up.
    I think its a good effort from our local industry.Lets hope they can build on this foundation and move to the next level.

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  3. @bankelele, you got to see 'papa' its very well done. but again, most productions where Charles Bukeko is involved are normally quite good.

    @pesa tu, am sure this will give the industry the break it has been yearning for for years.

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  4. i feel that ur ridicule 4 cobra squad was abit 2 brash.kenya's film industry is comin up.the fact that it looks far-fetched does not mean we don't av da potential.u've got alot of negative vibe u shold work on...or beta still quit being kenyan!or create ua own!!!

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  5. i totally agree with anonymous above, some of these poptots so good in critisizing can not even script for "why the zebra has stripes", i havent watched either of the show but it's good to hear Dr. Mutua has a thing going on, he always used to crack me up when he used to do the msafiri article. Let's support anyone who gives film a shot in kenya, or if we think what others are doing isnt good enough, do as anon says, create our own!

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  6. Agree totally on Papa- too funny. But Tahidi high takes the cake- I love the light hearted humor and most important, its so REAL.
    UNLIKE the NYOKA squad, which just shows how much time Alfie spends watching 24,3rdwatch,CSI etc.U CANT just copy-paste stuff from states ALA!!

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