YAHOO+: HUMAN OR RITUAL PARTS BUSINESS?

It is a low budget movie alright. But what Yahoo + lacks in budget, it made up for in story progression. The theme the movie explored elaborately is the ills of prostitution and get-rich-quick through diabolical means schemes.

An unapologetic prostitute, Pino Pino gets a deal to come spend the night with some rich boys at a good price. She is however met with a dilemma when her friend who was supposed to accompany her on the trip called to turn down the offer giving a nightmare she had as an excuse.

Pino Pino is unperturbed and keeps searching for another partner. On the other hand, the duo trying to engage the prostitutes for clandestine purposes are seen in a dialogue trying to convince themselves that what they are about to venture into is an unavoidable last resort to break even economically.

In their dialogue, one gathers they are wannabe Nollywood hustlers as well as unsuccessful internet fraudsters. While Abacha seems not fully convinced they should go through the process, his friend, Ose, is adamant and talks him into making up his mind.

Meanwhile, Pino Pino’s course mate acquiesces to join her on the adventure on the basis that it would be kept a secret as she was only doing it to make some quick money to settle her school debts.

The director of the movie did not do a bad job at keeping viewers glued to the movie scene after scene despite the fact that the plot seems so predictable.

It turns out that Abacha is Kamso’s boyfriend and Abacha drops the glass cups of laced palm wine he was about to serve them when he discovered it was his girlfriend that came for the ‘runs.’

Mansa calls on phone, just as Abacha was still coming to terms with the fact that his girlfriend came to do ‘runs’ so she can raise money for him, the Chief Villian calling to explain to him that he cannot save his girlfriend unless he wants to lose his life alongside that of his entire family.

Abacha is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. I applaud the genius of the screenwriter here as he caught me unawares which is one of the things a good movie should do. I was not expecting this kind of twist at this point in the movie. He made it totally impossible for the hesitant Abacha to rescind from offering his girlfriend up in the get-rich-quick ritual.

Another stroke of genius was the scene that had the boys working on their laptops like the notorious ‘yahoo boys’ are wont to do while a WhatsApp conversation goes on between the two girls while they drank the laced palm wine and ate their meat in the respective rooms of the guys.

It gets better; while Ose and his girl settle for a romp, Abacha opens up to his girl that she would not wake up from the drowsiness she is feeling. Kamso acts like she has passed out and immediately she catches Abacha unawares, she dashes out of the room, enters the kitchen and starts looking for what would keep her awake. She finds a coffee jar and starts eating the coffee raw.

Impressive. The movie increases pace scene after scene. And just when you think you have gotten the jerk, a new twist is introduced. One thing Yahoo + did well was the element of surprise.

Like Jay Jay Okocha with the ball, the story takes another turn when Kamso by a stroke of luck and aka odo (the pestle), knocks out Ose and holds Abacha hostage. Then after a touching exchange, they decide to work together. They revive Pino Pino with coffee. Coffee really came through in this movie.

Somehow, as they make to run away from the house, Ose holds them to the barrel of a gun. He gets Abacha to tie the two girls up. The way another movie with a money ritual theme was brought into the conversation as the drama played out gave me the chills. Ebuka Njoku knows what he is doing.

Yahoo + was an attempt to demystify the recent social menace tagged yahoo + and to expose it as the crime against humanity that it is. You would need to see the movie to find out how Abacha and Ose ended up and how the ‘ritual’ finally fared.

By O’star Eze