by Farida Adamu

Since its release on October 26, 2018, king of Boys has surely brought Kemi Adetiba a lot of goodwill. First Non-Comedy Nollywood film to reach 100million naira on box office, grossed N300 million in first seven weeks, 4th highest grossing nollywood movie of all time, Number 1 for seven weeks, making it the longest running film at number 1 in Nigeria territory, Kemi Adetiba’s King of Boys is a necessary movie.

With a strong beginning, strong ending and keen attention to detail Kemi tells the story of

Eniola Salami (Shola Shobowale), a pillar of society, mostly feared than loved. Her political ambitions see her outshining her masters which pulls her into a bloodied power struggle. To survive, she must depend on more than loyalty and connection, or risk losing everything including her seat as the “Oba” of a secret underground cartel which she seized notoriously

Only Shola Shobowale would have lived out that Oba character in the way it was intended to be.

Kemi Salami (Adesua Etomi), her adopted daughter is her strongest support system. Adesua doesn’t try too hard to be genius on screen, she is a natural.

Makanaki (Reminisce) is one of her faithfuls turned foe. Reminisce brings freshness with his act, Nollywood has new bad boy material. His debut movie appearance, Reminisce left no space for mediocrity. He marched Eniola Salami, evil for evil, darkness for darkness and even takes an extra step to attempt to take her crown. If you’ve not experienced real ruthlessness in a while, Makanaki has deep brutality to offer.

Another impressive actor was Toni Tones who played the role of a younger Alhaja Salami, a streetwise vixen who schemes her way to the top of the criminal ladder. Toni came to make simple announcement, that she is the new kid on the block everyone should watch out for.

Kemi’s excellence shines through her actors and shows so much thought and imagination went not only into writing a genius script but building a formidable cast.

In KOB everyone is trying to take over or hide their evil, a metaphor for the Nigerian political clime. The drive for Power is the central theme of the movie and others like karma, and religion are blended into the mix. There’s so much to love and a little to dislike like some unnecessary scenes, having star actors in scenes upcoming ones would have appreciated more and a little watery dialogue but all the flaws are nothing compared to the experience King of Boys brings.

One of the things I loved the most was the fluid and timely exchange of Yoruba proverbs, there wasn’t any point they felt misplaced or misused. Another was how gender wasn’t a barrier to Eniola being addressed as ‘Oba’, in the era of king of boys, gender does not exist. The king is the king, the powerful is the powerful and the weak get crushed. I also think Oba is a metaphor for Kemi Adetiba’s taking over the movie industry. Cause as far as I’m concerned she is the current king of Nollywood.

The experience of King of Boys is not one that will leave me soon, it’s inspiring a lot of 2019 goals for me and I learned a few key lessons from the blockbuster.

1. Never Empower people against you
2. You don’t get power, you take power
3. The reward for good is not always good, but karma always comes knocking on the door of evil.
4. The universe never forgets.

Have you watched the movie? What were the highs and lows for you? How did it make you feel? Share with me in the comments box. Cheers!