Controversial Nollywood actress, Cossy Ojiakor, seems to have found an opportunity to revive her waning career in a new movie titled Kondo Game, which officially hit the cinemas on May 25.Appearing in the movie alongside Uche Jombo, Jide Kosoko, Mercy Johnson-Okojie, Francis Odega and Mercy Aigbe, she plays a role too familiar for most ardent movie fans to miss – putting up a particular feature of her body on display once again.For many fans who may have expected something different from Cossy’s comeback, this is sort of disappointing. But the charming and soft-spoken actress sees nothing wrong with her role in the movie.The actress, in an interview with our correspondent on the sidelines of a private screening of Kondo Games in Lagos, admits that she has always felt comfortable playing the part of a sexy character.She says, “It is only when I play a character that relates to me as a person in a movie that most people notice the movie. If I play the part of a naughty person in a movie, people think I am naughty.
“So, when I play the kind of character that requires me to play with my body features, people want to remember the movie and identify me with the character. I feel very happy when I get such roles. I am happy I got the script for Kondo Game and I played my part well.”Indeed, in Kondo Game, Cossy, who plays the part of a local belle known as Caro, is clearly in her natural elements indulging in escapades with her married lover, a thoroughly corrupt and inept Divisional Police Officer (Kosoko), and seducing other policemen in the barracks, while their wives (played by Jombo and Johnson-Okojie) look on helplessly.
Caro’s body, her boobs in particular, are largely used for comic effect in the movie. She becomes the butt of jokes by the jealous and embittered neighbourhood women who will do anything possible within their power to ensure that she stay out of the reach of their husbands. However, beyond this obvious typecasting of the actress, Kondo Game is a parody of the Nigeria Police. Although the producer, Maryam Harris, claims that her original plan was to explore the domestic life in police barracks, the movie ends up exposing the sickening underbelly of a corruption-ridden police.Harris thinks it is out of place for viewers to focus on the conduct of policemen when on duty instead of their lifestyles in the barracks. Also, she wants Nigerians to “go deeper than the uniforms” worn by police personnel when they complain about them.
Unfortunately this is far from the results that Kondo Game has achieved. In one sweeping glance, the movie highlights the penchant among police personnel for bribery and corruption. It exposes the odium of an increasingly disturbing checkpoint syndrome. Manned by badly-behaved policemen, checkpoints — the film seems to warn — have become instruments of extortion and intimidation, with the poor and law-abiding citizens as the major victims.
Also, impunity assumes a frightening dimension in the movie when a team of policemen on patrol duty invade the scene of a party and subject the guests to a humiliating experience before settling down to a drinking spree.
If the producer of Kondo Game truly intended to explore the lifestyles of Nigerian policemen, then she has achieved her purpose by “digging deeper” than their uniforms to reveal the extent of the decay underneath.
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