Love and promote thy own, says former Speaker
Former Speaker of Parliament Henry Chimunthu Banda made a bold call to Malawians on Saturday, saying it is high time that “we started loving our own works and promoting it to the fullest by buying the original materials.”
Chimunthu Banda said this at Golden Peacock in Lilongwe when he graced the premiere of a fresh love movie titled Where My Heart Belongs which was written by renowned musician Kendall Kamwendo of the Symon and Kendall famed for the hit ‘Nyemba Nyemba.’
“Malawians let’s love thy own and promote thy own and on top of that thrive to buy original works,” said the former Speaker, adding that he was impressed with Kamwendo’s movie.
The former Speaker said:
“I am impressed with the great works by Kendall Kamwendo and the team as it is not longtime ago the country started producing movies. This is another great movie and I encourage Malawians to take time to watch and buy the movie, if there are comments make tangible comments.”
He said the country has come from afar from watching Hollywood movies to Nollywood and now time has come to get closer home and watch our own works written and produced by Malawian artists.
“There is a need to sharpen the works here and there but from what I have seen today we are moving in the right direction,” said Chimunthu Banda, who bought two DVDs during auction at K40,000 and K50,000 respectively.
His sentiments followed those of Nollywood official Misheck Obiyoma Ojuku who earlier also urged Malawians to cherish their own works if success has to be registered.
“It is good to criticise but it must be constructive criticism. There are other people who just love to criticise not to offer solutions or build but just kill. So you must cherish your own,” said Ojuku, who pledged K20,000 towards the DVD.
He urged film makers in the country not to be let down by criticism, saying it was the same with Nollywood which he said has come a long way, moving through thick and thin.
Film Association of Malawi (Fama) President Ezaius Mkandawire also described Where My Heart Belongs as a good movie, saying it is of high standard.
“It’s a quality movie worth watching, the sound and the picture is all good,” said Mkandawire of the movie produced by Kaya Filmz Inc.
Kamwendo, who apart from writing the movie also stars in the film, said he was not out of music as some might imply but rather he was just widening his net.
“I am still in music no doubt about that but as an artist I thought I should help out in uplifting the film industry which is still gaining ground. The film industry needs more players if it has to succeed, hence coming in to support. We tried our best, we took our time and this actually is a low budget movie,” he said.
The movie was initially expected to be premiered on Friday but Kamwendo said due to other challenges they shifted it to Saturday. This saw the premiere happening the same night with another event at Bingu International Conference Centre.
Despite the low turnout, Kamwendo said he was impressed with the feedback from people and that they have plans to launch it in Blantyre and other areas.
Where My Heart Belongs is a movie which is in the local language Chichewa but has English sub-titles.
The movie centres on the story of Davie played by Kamwendo, who is a mechanic who leaves with his daughter after the mother left for the UK.
Then there is a young woman Lucy (Modester Kanyenda) who is being chased by a well to do man Eric played by Brazio Matius.
Matius uses all the ways with his money to win the heart of Lucy but with all what he does including buying a brand new car, Lucy does not accept and instead she chases Davie.
The story basically centres on the power of love.
The launch on the night was spiced up by performances from The Great Angels Choir and Annie Matumbi, who did not offer live performances but used CDs.
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