The Learner

Production :    Maishadda Investment Ltd. Producer:        Abubakar Bashir Maishadda Director :         Ali Nuhu Year:              2018 Cast :               Maryam Yahaya, Umar M. Shareef, Baba Karkuzu, Musa Maisana’s, Alhassan Kwalle, Jamila Nagudu and others. I keep repeating to the level of monotony, perhaps, that 2018 is a different and challenging year for Kannywood filmmakers. The market is suffocated; some describe it as crashed, others say it is dead. Howsoever it really is, a few brave people still invest in it, producing quite costly films. The movie, Mariya (dir. Ali Nuhu) is a typical example. Moreover, the publicity it received, coupled with the popularity of its songs, heightened expectation in the minds of the audience. I am one of them. I waited, with abetted breath, for the film and, finally, I watched it yesterday. Mariya does not disappoint, even though it fails to meet my high expectation. Perhaps this happened because I am keenly interested in i

Muhsin Ibrahim @Muhsin234 I posted a slightly different version of this article in two separate Facebook status updates lately.  I critique and criticise Kannywood. I, however, incidentally promote them that way. Many people, especially those who knew me years ago, find it hard to believe that I ‘defend’ immorality that is the synonym for Hausa film and its makers in the ordinary discussion circle. I laugh at this ‘reasoning’ and move on. No doubt the filmmakers are in the wrong in many ways. But they are not what most of us think. Moreover, we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater, as they say. I understand the burden on Kannywood as an entertainment industry in an Islamicate society. However, their filmmakers should wake up to the reality that film cannot always be didactic and moralistic. While I don’t subscribe to the school of using art for art’s sake, film, as a reminder, is intrinsically an art, a source of amusement. A filmmaker can, though, gloss it