Ignite MTV’s Kenyan drama Shuga (2010) caught some applause and a fair amount of recognition at Sweden’s CinemAfrica Festival 2011, which recently came to an end. Shuga is a story about sex, HIV and AIDS. So the subject matter is heavy and one that permits a whole lot of attention. Hence it definitely draws sympathy and edges you to empathize with the characters. But do you?
The story follows a group of 6 college students, some of whom are infatuated with living ‘big’ and choose a hip-life-style as a means to that end. Little do they know how much risk they are taking as their lives suddenly hit the balance with positive HIV tests – and they have to come to grips with the realities of their choices and the grim prospects of the future.
The main character is Ayira (Lupita Nyong’o), a beautiful, confident and vivacious girl, who even though is in love with Ty (Pepe Haze), allows her passion to drive her to almost any height as she uses her beauty and sex-appeal to get whatever she wants. She wants a whole lot and she wants it quickly.
As her hunger and impatience for a better life clouds a big part of her judgment and sense of values she falls head over heals for Felix (Tumisho Masha) — an older richer executive of an advertising firm.
We do not immediately grasp or in the end, fully comprehend Ayira’s intentions as her flirtatious attitude and sexual escapades grow stronger with Felix. Does Ayira want an upper-class life-style? A job at the firm to support herself, her mother and sister whom her father had abandoned for another woman, or to support her poorer but long and steady boyfriend, Ty?
The story does not quite resolve any of these issues and we are left to fill in the blanks even when we see Ayira and Ty sitting together at the end. This renders Ayira’s life story particularly incoherent.
Meanwhile, the subplot of three fast boys evolves to tie in with Ayira’s fateful remorse – Leo (Nicholas Munene Mutuma), Kenneth (Antony Mwangi) and Skola (David Omwage) wake up after clubbing hard one night with girls and regret every minute of it. It turns out that Felix (and his daughter, Virginia (Eva Kanyangonda), by his former wife who had died of AIDS) and Skola are infected with the virus.
Here goes the full resolution!
Ayira, who’s been having unprotected sex with Felix may well be infected (Ty may be infected too), and Skola had slept with one of Ayira’s friends so the list of the infected may pile up in the end. Who knows? We don’t know! Just guess?
At first, you appreciate the artistry — clever introductions of the main characters in some slick and colorful computer animated sticky notes with witty taglines about each character. It is different and you want to respect the variety. But then after 25 minutes when they are still doing it, it just spirals into some childish exuberance over a newly acquired toy.
Just about then, you start seeing glimpses of 127 Hours (2010) with split screen shots all over – permeating the bulk of the cinematography. As if this was not enough, they inject every scene with an over-dose of some popular African hip-life music, which is often powerful with its familiarity but the effect diminishes with repetition.
Furthermore, the color schemes render the mood that the music and the shots are supposed to portray, completely confusing, and sometimes it is better looking in the other direction! You want to scream out loud, Stop it! Just take a look at Belly (1998) with DMX, Nas and Method Man, you may learn a thing or two.
But when the camera work is steady , it works and the pictures come to live. You want the camera to stay there but the picture is suddenly contaminated with bad framing, too many close-ups, and God knows where they learned the robotic zoom from – it doesn’t work!
Except for the buzz that Shuga generated in Kenya, Zambia, Uganda and communities with the long and sad history of AIDS, the story needs much more attention and some patience would have done it a whole lot of good. We see a character in the beginning kissing on Ayira but we never come back to him.
It seemed as though the original film was cut into pieces, tossed into the air and allowed to just settle independently into whatever sequence! There was no real sense of when to enter a shot and when to get out of it. The HIV-AIDS issues discussed in the movie were at best, exposition heavy, especially at the radio station.
In the end, the title didn’t mean much and the climax was too contrived. I think that the writers should have concentrated on developing a story about a couple of characters rather than 6 of them. HIV affects a lot of people but you don’t need a lot of people in one story in order to make a strong campaign about it.
Hence Shuga is more so an Education Documentary and a Sexual Health Campaign than a movie. It is provocative and to the credit of the writers and directors, they infuse some much needed humor into an otherwise heavy and dry topic such as when Leo says: “Don’t let your erection determine your direction!” Thumbs up for also breaking away from using light skinned girls for major roles in black movies.
Shuga is a film in the right direction for bringing some much needed awareness to Africa and black communities about the dangers of HIV and the writers and directors may well achieve higher heights in the future. I have no doubt they will keep improving.
Enjoy! Thanks for reading and please feel free to leave your comments and thoughts.
I agree with this review. The computer animated intros, the close-ups and the split screen thing could have been a little managed for better effect. Here they just felt like playing with it, like you said, they toyed with it a whole lot and it made the movie a little childish at times. You guys should watch ‘Down Terrace’ and let me know what you think of it. There’s a whole lot of movies like this that do not see the light of day.
I enjoyed this movie a bunch. It’s been one of the best Nollywood movies I’ve seen in ages. I understand what you mean by the split screen stuff and the computer animated intros… for me it works and I love them. I tink these guys are really artistic. The actors were wonderful and it speaks a whole lot about the level of the Kenyan Film industry as opposed to the Nigerian & Ghanaian Film Industry. At long last, some positivity in film rather than watching Beyonce or Juju or Witchcraft everyday.
Come on man! Why you gotta call out Ghana & Nigeria like that? Nollywood makes a ton of great movies. If you think all they make are about witchcraft and Juju then you should cast your net a little wider. The film industry in Ghana and Anago are very highly revered around the world and particularly in the African Diaspora! I mean this man! You can check this. Between Ghana & Nigeria, about 50 movies come out a week and you have to be on your guard to make sure you are getting the variety they come with. Because with this number of movies a week you may not necessarily be able to see all the good ones. With better marketing in Kenya in the future, I am sure you guys will become more and more conversant with the movies from West Africa.
There’s great marketing in Kenya! What I meant by positive is that, a movie like Shuga is trying to make a change in society… not entrench some sadistic beliefs in witchcraft and such. It about time Nollywood started making movies about positive things about Africa and forget about those stupid parts of the culture. Those parts of the culture must be forgotten, they lead us nowhere.
It’s an interesting point of view. All I am still saying is that you should try and sample a good number of Nollywood movies in order to have a good idea about the subject matter they cover. You’ll be surprised that it’s not what you think.
This movie is better than I thought it was going to be after I read the review. I think you are a little harsh on the movie guys. It wasn’t perfect. The girl was really pretty too so it wasn’t that bad. I have seen some really bad African movies that were not even half as entertaining.
I just don’t know what to say. It definitely should have been a documentary instead of a movie.
I definitely disagree with you guys about this movie. This was a great piece of work. I loved the move and I don’t know what in the world you are talking about. What, the story resolved very well, the actors were on point, the direction was great and the picture was beautiful. I don’t see all the problems you have with the movie? I saw Belly too and Belly is not as good as this movie.
[…] Shuga was an MTV TV shows aired in 2011.It featured some of the best Kenyan actors and the program was a success with urban youth for a while before it fizzled out. […]
[…] Shuga was an MTV TV shows aired in 2011.It featured some of the best Kenyan actors and the program was a success with urban youth for a while before it fizzled out. […]