Renowned Nollywood actors Wumi Toriola, Mide Martins, and their colleagues have taken to their social media platforms to provide clarity and express their regrets over a continuity mishap that occurred in Ija, the 90 minute drama in which the duo starred adjacent to each other as co-wives.
The family drama which was aimed at highlighting the struggles of men with multiple wives had veteran actors including Okele, Afeez Abiodun, Lola Idije and Ayo Mogaji, sparring on stage.
The acting is good, the dialogue so powerful, subtitling, accurate, and the scripting so tastefully done that I was even wondering if the scriptwriter is getting as much press as they should.
Wumi Toriola(Itunu) and Mide Abiodun(Oyindamola), in their stereotypical characters as hot-headed women, interpret their roles to the T and infuse a lot of satire that would keep you chuckling from start to finish.
A testament to this is the sheer number of people who raced to YouTube after coming across snippets of the film on Instagram and Twitter, including myself🥵.
Unfortunately, it is the same attraction that almost ruined this movie. In this popular scene where Wumi stands up to her senior co-wife and her co-wife’s mom’s bullying, there was a massive continuity gaffe.
Wumi was wearing a shirt, a pair of jeans and a curly wig during the first part of this scene which occurs on the ground floor of their house.
She then storms upstairs in anger and we see that her husband, who has never seen her in this state, goes after her to placate her.
But on getting there, Wumi is now wearing a straight wig while the shirt and jeans remain the same.
A simple explanation for this may be that the director had to discard some parts of the downstairs scene, and use another take.
But because they fail to perfectly recreate the first take, they are caught in a “you go just dey explain, no evidence” scenario.
Wumi and Mide have explained the situation on their social media pages and apologised to the viewers for the errors.
According to Wumi, as an actor on set, her main focus is always to interpret her role to the best of her ability while relying on the BTS crew to hold their end of the forte as well.
Surely, being able to pay attention to the details is not just a decorative aspect of a CV. It is a real thing; and in a venture like filmmaking- where there are so many bases to cover- ability to take a fine tooth comb to everything cannot be overemphasised.
While this reflects on everyone that was part of IJA negatively, it is true that this error is in no way Wumi’s .
It is on that note that we add our voice to that of the crew of this production and plead with everyone to temper justice with mercy and not take this as an excuse to further fuel any distrust they may have had about the industry in the past.
