Jamila da Jamilu trilogy and new standards in Kannywood

The story focuses on the marital woes of Jamila, who felt so deeply the importance of keeping to herself the pains of finding her husband in her matrimonial bed with another woman. She never agreed to disclose the story even to her mother.

For a Kannywood film, the standard of acting was impressive, not quite there yet but on the way. Ibrahim Maishunku was impressive in his role as the cheating husband and Jamila Umar was simply dignified as the loyal wife who is determined to keep the ship of her marriage afloat.

What sustains the viewers’ interest is the suspense, which starts with Jamila’s trip to her husband’s village to spend time with his extended family. While there she discovers her husband’s jilted lover, Indo, who turns out to be quite a character. She is mean and desperate to hurt Jamilu through his family. she plays the jealous lover almost to perfection, causing Jamila a lot of anxiety.

But upon investigation, Jamila discovers that as unorthodox as she is, the jilted village lover has a cause. Jamliu promised to marry her but jilts her when he got to the city and meets the more elegant Jamila. That is the first indication of the flaw in Jamilu’s character. Jamila uses diplomacy to tame the flames of Indo’s wrath and it seems the couple would cruise on to the famed happy ending.

But there is a twist in the tale when jamila, nursing a sick child leaves the village suddenly to return to the city for urgent medical attention. She rushes home only to find her husband in bed with another woman.

That is practically the starting point of the story. The couple is now locked in a silent tussle of will, with  Jamilu bracing himself for the backlash of his action while the much awaited reaction from the wife refuses to come. The tension in  the house transcends beyond the screen and reaches out to the viewers.

The wife’s refusal to even broach the subject drives the suspense to an unbearable level even for the husband who now starts pressuring her to ‘do something.’ In between, there are comic elements – such as the visits by Jamila’s friends and relations with the cheating husband suspecting that his wife has disclosed his infidelity to them, his coming apart only to realise they are referring to other trivial matters etc.

In the third part of the trilogy, the film opens with Jamila’s corpse discovered in her bedroom. This brings in some thriller aspect and the third part focuses on unravelling the killer with the husband as the chief suspect. It transforms to a court drama as a smart lawyer later unravels the identity of the murderer.

The hype over the film is worth it, no doubt. It is one of the best to come out of Kannywood. There were starling performances from the lead characters and the crafting of the tale was commendable with the tale twisting this way and that. And of course there were the usual dance numbers, though it wasn’t overdone as is commonly the case.

The editing could have been better though as some scenes ended abruptly especially the second part, giving a kind of Lord of the Rings effect but with little success because there was no hint of what was to come next.

The story is tightly packed but there was really no need to stretch it to three parts. But in any case, the directors must be given thumbs up for a commendable effort. Jamila da Jamilu could just set a new standards for films from Kannywood.