Suliat kan. Ayetoro kan.
If you dont ‘get’ the words above then you haven’t been touched by the ‘Jenifa’ phenomenon. ‘Jenifa’ is the brainchild of actress, Funke
Akindele. Funke has been a successful actress for over a decade. She got her big break on the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) sponsored youth-oriented TV show, ‘I Need To Know’. Since then she has completed her law degree at the University of Lagos and now she is pursuing her movie career in full throttle. Acting in English movies and then producing, writing and starring in Yoruba movie productions.
Her new movie ‘Jenifa’ is making major waves and is selling out fast! ‘Jenifa’ tells the all too familiar story of a young ‘village girl’ who moves to the city to enrol in university. Suliat (Funke Akindele) is a local champion in her humble hometown, Ayetoro. She is the most popular babe of them all and highly influential amongst her peers. She gains admission to university in Lagos and moves there with great expectations. At university, she is ridiculed for her style (or lack-there-of), her accent and manner of speaking then she meets a group of girls, things begin to change and Suliat is transformed to JENIFA….
The movie is actually pretty predictable but the humour, costumes and acting performances carry it along nicely. Its so commendable that Funke also wrote the script and produced the movie. The movie also stars Ronke Odusanya, Iyabo Ojo, Ireti Osayemi, Odunade Adekola, Eniola Badmus and Tola Oladokun.
This is definitely the movie of the moment! You can hardly go anywhere without hearing a conversation about it or some quips from the movie like Suliat/Jenifa’s buzz words ‘ooouushhh’ ‘Bigz Girlz’ etc…
The movie is so popular that it has inspired a song by Amplifyd Ft ID Cabasa