By Ed Cropley
JOHANNESBURG, March 9 (Reuters) – A low-budget movie
about a young Muslim man’s quest to make it on the Johannesburg
comedy circuit is wowing audiences across South Africa, and its
powerful portrayal of the clash between youth, tradition and
religion may lead to global recognition.
Set in the Muslim Indian enclave of Fordsburg in Africa’s
“City of Gold”, “Material” charts the tempestuous relationship
between Cassim Kaif, played by local stand-up comedian Riaad
Moosa, and his ageing father, Ebrahim, whose one dream is for
his son to take over the family’s struggling fabric shop.
Shot on a shoe-string $1 million budget, the movie combines
moments of heart-wrenching family and personal drama with
hilarious snippets of stand-up comedy and everyday life in one
of the continent’s most cosmopolitan cities.
“The film celebrates the goodness of South Africa’s spirit
and the legacy of a unique and historical part of this land,”
said producer Ronnie Apteker, a successful Internet entrepreneur
whose energies are now dedicated to film-making.
“It is not a Bollywood film, but a contemporary Indian
story. It is a movie for the whole family, contains no
profanity, and should be able to be enjoyed by people of all
ages both in South Africa and the rest of the world.”
In the past three weeks, box office takings show it holding
its own against major Hollywood releases, and it is generating
considerable buzz in local media and among a South African
public not renowned for its movie-going.
It is also a rare example of a film that explores the plight
of the sizeable Indian community, rather than focus on the more
well-known struggle of the black majority against the
white-minority rule that ended in 1994.
Besides Moosa – a doctor by training – it features a
stirring performance by South African-born actor Vincent
Ebrahim, better known as the penny-pinching patriarch in
award-winning British-Indian comedy show “The Kumars at No. 42”.
Continued…
