Tọkọ Olori, the Director in his film divides the two worlds of Nigeria, and That’s A World of Car Smugglers Titled “TÒKUNBÒ”. The Film possesses Classy Casts like Chidi Mokeme, Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi, Gideon Okeke, Darasimi Nadi and others. It will be streaming on Netflix.
SYNOPSIS:
The story focusses on Tòkunbò, A young ex – smuggler trying to reach the pinnacle of American dream only to be forced back into crime during dire financial circumstances. Liver complications worsened his son’s chances of survival and Tòkunbò finds himself under threat from one of the smugglers, Nayatu who in three hours wants to hold central bank Governor, Folashade’s daughter, Nike hostage in return of Tòkunbò selflessly helping his son. Basically, that forms the engrossing plot of the film that has its themes surrounding time, desperation, and redemption alike.
CASTS/PERFORMANCES:
Okeke plays Tòkunbò and his role fetches him considerable accolades. He articulates the struggles of the ex smuggler quite brilliantly and demonstrates the sacrifices he needs to succeed within his new plethora of challenges.
Chidi Mokeme as Gaza: Mokeme entirely embraces faith as he mentions himself in gaza character as a popular gangster meaningful murderer that is fully fledged with devil’s charm.
Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi as Folashade: Aofiyebi-Raimi enacts the role of Central Bank Governor such with thick emotion as that of mother bearing a child who’s been spirited away.
Darasimi Nadi as Nike: Nadi succeeded in her role as a kidnapped girl and makes this role stand out and brings life to the character aiding the story.
Direction and Cinematography:
Nouah, Ramsey focused more on the nitty-gritty of the Nigerian Gangs which were more central to character evolution than character emergence. The story follows the plots through the drama that was put in the film with the cinematography of Lagos city, Sèmè border as the backdrop.
Themes and Analysis:
Ethical ambiguity: “ Tòkunbò” revolves around the theme of conflicts in thinking and action that a person in a state of extremes’ needs to go through to save her loved ones.
Family and sacrifice: The central theme of narrator’s family dynamics reveals to what level a family member can go to save another one, sacrifices that some members as a result make.
Crime and redemption: The transition from crime back to life is never easy, and there are quite a number of pulls in society that mean one is usually just going back to illegal work.
Critical Reception:
The reviews on the film ‘Tòkunbò’ have been rather varied. In LeisureByte Archi Sengupta says that this film has a well thought plot because it remains enthralling till the end, and gave it a rating of three stars out of five.
On the other hand, Pramit Chatterjee’s rating for Tòkunbò was one star as he described it as ‘Ironic and out of touch with the Indian audience’ further adding that it “lacks everything, maintaining that it is ‘just a film’”.
Another one of those critics is Daniel Hart of Ready Steady Cut describes the film in similar terms, rating it one star, he asserted the movie with his description: making one yawn over and again.
Availability:
The movie ‘Tókunbò’ was presented In the city of Lagos, Nigeria on 19th of August 2024, the movie then made its official debut on Netflix 4 days later on August 23, 2024. The movie is available worldwide, and provides a glance of Nigeria cinema, and narrating.
Conclusion:
Tòkunbò has a very gripping storyline that revolves around a mix of crime, family, and morality and is based out of Nigeria. The film has received split views from majority of the critics, but the film does bring to light content which features the growing diversity of Nollywood content available to societies external to its origin through Netflix.
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