Muri and Ko, the result of the latest collaboration between Biodun Stephen and Inkblot Studios, is a fairly exciting comedy thriller starring Kunle Remi as the titular Muri and child actor Fiyinfoluwa Asenuga as Cole. Muri is a petty thief who is down on his luck and a debtor who is always on the run. After several stealing escapades fail to yield desirable results, his friend Rasky (Bro Bouche) lets him in on a more profitable venture— vehicle spare parts theft. With the promise of good returns for any vehicle parts, Muri sets to work immediately.

Muri soon hits the jackpot when he finds a car left unattended by Cole’s grandma (Gloria Anozie-Young) at the mall. The allure of selling a whole vehicle makes Muri instantaneously upgrade from petty stealing to grand theft auto (it’s a pretty steep slope, I guess). Muri finally gets his big break, or so he thought, until a complication quickly sets in, there is a child in the back seat, Cole. Cole’s grandma wastes no time in reporting to the police, but she isn’t taken seriously by the station detective (Femi Jacobs) until he learns that Cole’s mother is Chidinma (Bisola Aiyeola), his favourite reality TV star. The detective gets to action quickly, pulling all stops to solve the case. Muri becomes a wanted man for GTA and kidnapping. As Muri attempts to escape the law while keeping Cole safe, they bond during the adventure and become an unlikely duo. The incident also becomes an avenue for Chidinma and Cole’s father, Banji (Bucci Franklin), to resolve their relationship issues. 

While many may have come to know Kunle Remi (Anikulapo) as one of the poster boys for Nollywood romance, on a closer look he has shown versatility in different roles. As Muri, he is called upon to play a street tout and he delivers by embodying the role to the bone, physically and through voice-overs that immerse us seamlessly into the action. He becomes the shining light of the film, lighting up the screen in every scene he is in. His performance is complemented by his partner in crime, Fiyinfoluwa Asenuga (Mikolo), who shows some promise, and Femi Jacobs (The House of Secrets) as a detective. The three of them carry the acting performances of Muri and Ko on their backs. 

Everything about Muri and Ko points to it being a comedy. While it is funny at first, it quickly loses steam, mostly due to an inability to depict some of the action in comical contexts. The overly serious scores create confusion. It makes one wonder if they are watching a comedy or an action thriller. Subsequently, the film becomes boring for stretches with the comedy only showing up in bits. As the stakes of the plot increase, it is not properly depicted in the details of the action. We do not see the titular duo go on an adventure or tackle multiple complications that would help them bond in a convincing manner.

Also, there’s no proper motivation for Muri not to have found a nice environment to drop Cole off or even abandon both the car and the boy as soon as he recognises the stakes, allowing him to escape with no consequences. In essence, details and actions that would develop their motivations and justify their actions are not built into the plot. While they become a duo, the premise for their bonding does not hold sufficiently as the characters’ personas do not grow to match their actions. 

Muri and Ko, Stephen’s third outing with Inkblot after Big Love and Small Talk, puts a lighthearted spin on a hostage situation and it becomes a story of an unlikely duo’s adventure. Although Muri and Ko is not without its failings, it’s one of those films where you can overlook the drawbacks, and get invested in seeing how the plot is resolved.

Muri and Ko premiered at the cinemas on June 12.

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Side Musings

• Naija cinema screens are too dark.
• Why do all Nollywood criminals need to have deep and cracked voices? 
• Nollywood, steadily representing the Nigerian Police as a low-IQ organisation. 
• Surely, a 7-year-old boy is not so small that he’d escape the camera frame in that cramped car
• Good inadvertent satire
• The events of the film too do not show a proper progression of time, everything moves too fast as too many events are packed into the two-day timeline of the film