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Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘Keteke’, the movie, was solid

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Entertainment of Thursday, 9 March 2017

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2017-03-09

Lydia Forson Keteke NewAdjetey Anang and Lydia Forson acted in Keteke

Last Wednesday was International Women’s Day and as always, the radio and television stations took advantage to celebrate women. The biggest one, in my arrogant view, was what Joy FM did on its morning show when they assembled some of the big female achievers in Ghana.

The wife of the Vice President, Samira Bawumia, who days earlier had been castigated by a section of the Muslim community (mostly on Social Media), for what they consider as her un-Islamic dressing to the Independence Parade, took charge of Kojo Yankson’s show.

She had a very strong panel to boot in the EC Chairperson Charlotte Osei, former Deputy Finance Minister Mona Quartey, the elegant Joyce Aryee and others.

It was an all-female show and Samira came across as someone who had enough confidence to handle the show. I am sure most dials in Accra fell on the Super Morning Show like they had not done in a long while. Kudos to all women for all they do for us!

I want to talk about a movie today, however. Last Saturday I did something I had not done in a long time. I attended a movie premiere.

My Saturday was very packed and there was no way I was going to end up at the Silverbird at the Accra Mall if I looked at where I would be between midday and 6pm. Not to say that I had to wake up early to travel!

I don’t attend movie premieres because there’s almost always too many people and too many celebrities who feel too important at such programmes.

Plus usually, the movies that are shown after I have gone through all the hustle are usually not interesting. At least not interesting to me.

However, the one who invited me to attend this particular premiere, I surmised, would take no for an answer and so I had no choice in the matter.

Thus after I had left the Peduase Valley Resort where a magnificent Kente exhibition was launched, I found my way to the Accra Mall, willy-nilly, as they say.

The place was packed to the rafters, the human traffic was choking, the sweat was building, and there were so many Ghanaian celebrities around you would think it was the day they all decided to come out to see a movie or two. But no, they were there to hug the limelight and to take photos with their fans among other things.

Let me state emphatically that I was not happy with the organisation. I got to the Silverbird around 8pm. It took me about 15 minutes to get my popcorn and Coke (except the Coke wasn’t very cold so I swapped it with a bottle of Sprite) and yet I got to sit down after standing in a queue for more than 30 minutes and the hall where the movie would be showed kept changing from one to the next to the next. Simply put, both Silverbird and the organisers of the premier bungled it some!

Despite sipping on the Sprite and picking my popcorn from the box and tossing them into my mouth, while riding the long queue, the long day’s stress and not wanting to be at a movie premiere had conspired to make me as cranky as the crankiest person you know. Bottom-line, this movie better be good or what happened in 1984 would happen again.

After some people had lost their seats for getting up and coming back and the playing of a few commercials, the lights went off and the room was set for the movie for which we came here, Keteke, to be shown to a very expectant and full house.

The opening was awesome. The two main characters Boi and Atswei were standing like they were on a poster. Not moving, not winking, not smiling, just standing there for the full 60 seconds or more before moving. I love great movie openings and this one was a brilliant opening.

Maybe, I should tell you about the story of the movie before we move on. Boi and Atswei, are travelling to Akete, where Atswei’s mother lives for Atswei to deliver their child. They are going to travel by train to Akete. Atswei is heavily pregnant and could go into labour anytime.

Thus when they miss the morning train, her anger could cook five tubers of yam. She is so angry with Boi for as far as she is concerned he caused them to miss the train. Well, it would take a very long while for another train to come and so, perhaps, she is within her rights to be angry.

And oh, it appears they had been waiting for a while before we joined them. Longer than I stood in that queue, I can bet. Since no train is coming, they have to walk along the railway to the next stop and see if they would get another train to Akete so Atswei would be delivered.

The journey was the movie. The banter along the way, the insults, the exchange of words the occasional show of love and then the insults again, the insinuation, family bashing, mother bashing and the whole nine yards is the meat and potatoes of Keteke.

The lead character Boi is my favourite actor, Adjetey Anang and his wife is my favourite actress…I am lying…my favourite actress is Yvonne Okoro…Atswei was played by Lydia Forson. Both actors were awesome in their roles.

Whoever did the casting was spot on, Forson’s demeanor and mannerism was amazingly spot-on. Anang was as usual the best guy to put himself in the character of the role and he came out flying! My rating: 7.5/10 for Forson, 8/10 for Anang.

I feel Keteke was speaking about two things: the good old days and bringing attention to the lack of a good rail system and how people who depend on such a means of transportation suffer daily.

Thus the costume for the old school feel for both Boi and Astwei were absolutely perfect and so were the props: Astwei’s portmanteau and Boi’s sound system.

Generally, I feel the production was good, the camera angles, long and close up shots were perfect, the editing was awesome and the subtitling when the dialogue is in Ga deserves a mention for accuracy.

Above all, this the storyline is the real ace. Peter Sedufia who wrote and directed this movie just wrote his name in gold with this story.

Two more things I like about Keteke, the brevity and the suspense which kept you watching till the end. Plus, unlike most Ghanaian movies, it doesn’t end the way you thought it would. I won’t say what happened on the way, just find time to watch Keteke and let’s talk after that.

Any negatives? Errrrrmmmm…I may have missed most except the part where they met the medicine man at his cottage, it didn’t come out very strongly for me.

The essence of that was kind of lost on me. But if I should rate the movie generally it gets 8/10 from me. Yes, it was worth all the time I spent in the queue hence we shall leave what happened in 1984 to remain in 1984.

Keteke was produced by Peter Sedufia and Manaa Abdallah and stars Adjetey Anang, Lydia Forson, Fred Amugi, Joseph Otsiman, Clemento Suarez, Jeneral Ntatia, Raymond Sarfo and others.

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