In a time when romantic comedies are dominating our big screens, Mandla Dube resurrects the story of Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu onto those same screens, but is it worth telling or seeing? Let’s dig in...
Apparently it took Mandla Dube (co-writer, director and co-producer of Kalushi) 9 years to make this movie. In between that, he was the Director of Photography (D.O.P) on Sobukwe: A Great Soul.
The award winning documentary by Mickey Dube cleaned out at the SAFTAS, so the man has an eye for visuals and Kalushi shows off some of those touches.
Dube and his D.O.P, Tommy Maddox Upshaw, do a great visual job of telling Mahlangu's story . The standout moment is their recreation of June 16, for something that’s been done so many times before, they bring some visionary flare to the sequence. I believe film students will write thesis about the sequence for years to come.
Yet the film is not all about visuals; there’s a story that everyone knows but its details are not so popular. Although Solomon Mahlangu has a statue, a street and even a college named after him (Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania and Pretoria) his story is not that well known.
The trial of Mahlangu becomes a device to tell the life story of the man. We get the story of student cum hawker, the story of the guerrilla in training and finally the martyr, all under 3 hours. Without it dragging.
The set up is a bit slow getting on its feet but once the court case gains momentum were are fully engaged into the story and the performance by the cast really starts to shine.
From the ever reliable Thabo Malema who was brilliant in
Skyf , who is now the hot headed Mondy Motloung (the Joe Pesci-like character) to Solomon Mahlangu’s more Henry Hill/ Ray Liotta cool and calm collected Solomon. Mondy and Solomon are comrades and friends who are like fire and ice but good friends still.
Mahlangu is played by Thabo Rametsi, as a strong silent type. At first I was a bit put off by the polished accents and 2016 lingo present in the film, the only actor who seems to have done justice to the accent of the 70s is Welile Nzuza (of Scandal! fame), who's captivating as the com-tsotsi leader Tommy London.
Yet Rametsi's conviction to his role shines through, especially in the court scene, and as the movie continues he embodies Solomon Mahlangu. He starts to exude that silent strong confidence so well that when he makes his William Wallace Braveheart speech in court, I think he even upstages what Idris Elba did in his court speech in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Only those with stones for hearts cannot be touched by the delivery and potency of the speech and performance of the young man Rametsi, who's brilliantly supported by Mma Gcina Mhlophe as Solomon’s mom and Pearl Thusi as the girlfriend Brenda.
In a time where movies are pushing escapist 1% lifestyle Kalushi reminds us of how far we still need to go. The battles of the 76-generation and those after them who believed in freedom in the new South Africa are still as valid today as they were in Kalushi’s time.
When we look at what’s happening on our varsity campuses; the end outsourcing campaign, the #FeesMustFall movement and #RhodesMustFall movement and the fact that in the 40
th year since 76 in Pretoria, University people are still being punched over Afrikaans. In UFS black kids are being beaten up on rugby fields and the black child is still fighting for his space for economic freedom and social justice even today. Indeed aluta continua.
Although the film omits one of the crucial chapters of the Kalushi story, which is the international solidarity movement that tried to appeal to the apartheid government's senses to make it stop the 19-year-old's hanging - it was the campaign that elevated Kalushi to the cult status until he was finally hanged.
The film does do a great job in showing why an ordinary young South African who wanted to do good by his family and please his girlfriend, would end up a guerilla fighting an oppressive system to an extent that he would give his life for a cause more noble than most; the pursuit of freedom for his people.
On that basis alone I hope we go out there to see the movie when it comes out in September. For Solomon is us and we are him, even in the so called post apartheid era, his struggles are still ours even today. This film reminded me of that.
Side note: you can currently catch Kalushi at the Rapid Lion Film Festival at the Market Theatre for this week only. Kalushi is Mandla Dube’s first feature film and one of the very few films that has a South African lead portraying South African struggle icon. It comes out nationally in September this year.
Rating
****
============================================================================
* Rubbish **Ja nee ***only if there’s nothing better on TV ****Now we cooking ***** Instant classic