On Friday, November 7, 2014, ace cinematographer, Tunde Kelani premiered his latest movie in Lagos.
Held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos, the star-studded movie, which features top Nollywood acts including Kunle Afolayan, Kemi Lala-Akindoju, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett and Seun Akindele as lead characters, drew a large crowd of film stars, dignitaries and guests to the Onikan, Lagos Island venue of the premiere event.
Titled Dazzling Mirage the movie premiered in spectacular fashion, in the end delivering a large dose of the creative genius for which Kelani has become known over the years.
Based on a love story that explores an emotional subject tilted towards people living with Sickle Cell Anaemia, the movie further adds to the respected filmmaker’s acclaim as one who likes to address topical social issues in his works.
Written by Ade Solanke, Dazzling Mirage is an adaptation of Yinka Egbokhare’s novel of the same title and traces the life of someone living with sickle cell who fights through betrayal and denial to focus on helping the public understand what sickle cell really means and getting the society to care more for people affected by the medical condition brought upon them through no fault of theirs.
Also featuring notable movie figures like Bimbo Manuel, Carol King, Yomi Fash-Lanso and others, the movie is the conscious filmmaker’s 18th movie in a career spanning several years of productive cinematic activities.
With Dazzling Mirage as a film boasting socially relevant themes in ample proportions, focusing on the much-talked about yet mostly misconstrued sickle cell anaemia subject, it is a measure of 66-year old Tunde Kelani’s inclination as a celebrated filmmaker who remains committed to the arts as a weapon of social justice.
Unlike most people in his age range, Kelani remains busy, but not with systems in the workplace, nor with boardroom politics and definitely not with political strategy. He is busy as a creative being who stays restless as long as ideas keep coming to his head.
Born on February 26, 1948, the cultural advocate and philosophical movie man popularly known as TK, is a veritable father figure for many on the Nollywood lane including Kunle Afolayan who continues to break the glass ceilings in the Nigerian filmmaking environment.
Beyond being the one who calls the shots as producer and director, the Ogun State-born man of amiable disposition regards himself as a storyteller, director, cinematographer and literary enthusiast.
In a career spanning more than four decades already, TK specialises in producing movies that promote Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage and have a root in documentation, archiving, education, entertainment and promotion of the culture. Born in Lagos, Tunde was sent to live with his grandparents at Abeokuta from the age of 5, attending the Oke-Ona Primary School in Ikija, Abeokuta and the Abeokuta Grammar School in the process.
Kelani’s grandfather was a chief – the Balogun of Ijaiye Kukudi and the young boy witnessed from close quarters aspects of Yoruba ways of life with the religion, literature, philosophy and Yoruba worldview taking roots in his young mind.
Also introduced to Yoruba literature early, the young Tunde became obsessed with the arts having seen how thrilling an impact books and theatrical performances of the Palmwine Drinkard, Oba Koso, Kurunmi, the Ogunde plays and more had on him. In a recent interview with National Mirror, Kelani said:
‘When I was very young, I took to literature, I read everything I came in contact with. My show of fantasy came from books and stories. So, I was dreaming; I was lost in the world of books and stories… D.O Fagunwa was king in the art of telling stories.’
Another aspect of creativity that would go on to shape his life was his involvement in photography from primary school. So taken in with photography was Kelani that he became an apprentice photographer after his secondary school education before later undergoing training at the then Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) before he attended the London Film School.
On that, he said in the same interview: ‘You know that D.O Fagunwa writes with precision and the greatest sense of imagination. So, he fuelled my fantasies a lot. I discovered photography quite early too in Abeokuta then. I decided that I wanted to be a photographer before I went into motion picture production.’
After his training, he kicked off his career in 1970 as a BBC TV and Reuters correspondent, travelling around Africa to cover developing stories armed with the camera as his weapon.
Once through with his London Film School training, however, Kelani was fired up and upon coming back to Nigeria, he co-produced his first film with Adebayo Faleti called Idaamu Paadi Minkailu (The Dilemna of Rev. Father Michael). tunde kelani Unknown to many, Tunde Kelani has also worked on most feature films produced in Nigeria far back as a cinematographer including 16mm feature classics like Anikura, Ogun Ajaye, Iya Ni Wura, Taxi Driver, Iwa and Fopomoyo.
In 1990, Kelani was an assistant director on the set of a major American drama, Mister Johnson starring Pierce Brosnan, Maynard Eziashi and based on Joyce Cary’s 1939 book.
That readers would surely go on to become leaders has played out well in the career of Tunde Kelani as the renowned producer developed a keen interest in reading at a very young age, starting with the 5 classic works of renowned literary giant, D.O Fagunwa. With some of his favourite writers being Kola Akinlade, Amos Tutuola, Cyprian Ekwensi, Akinwunmi Ishola, Adebayo Faleti, Wale Ogunyemi and Wole Soyinka, some of Kelani’s best films are literary adaptations, including Koseegbe, Oleku, Thunderbold (Magun), The White Handkerchief, The Narrow Path, Maami and the recent Dazzling Mirage.
In 1991, Tunde Kelani started his own production company, Mainframe Films and Television Productions also popularly known as Opomulero.
Incorporated in 1992, the company was set up ‘to promote our rich cultural heritage and moral values both within the country and the outside world at large, to improve the standards of film production in Nigeria and to give technical support to other production houses both within and outside Nigeria,’ according to the company’s best.
22 years down the line, not many would argue that TK has not kept the promise in all spheres.
First off the prolific movie production kitchen of Kelani is the classic, Ti Oluwa Nile in 1993. The two other sequels of the movie followed that same year while another trend-setting movie, Ayo Ni Mofe as well as its sequel, Ayo Ni Mofe 2, were released in 1994. Kelani released Koseegbe, which has continued to reverberate several years after, in 1995 and followed up with O Le Ku in 1997, Saworoide in 1999 and White Handkerchief in 2000.
Other not less impressive films that the great man has made available to fans include Thunderbolt: Magun (2001), Agogo Eewo (2002), The Campus Queen (2004), Abeni (2006), The Narrow Path (2006), Life in Slow Motion (2008), Arugba (2010), Maami (2011) and Dazzling Mirage (2014).
