Nollywood actor Kunle Afolayan is set to start shooting his first film of the year.
The movie titled Mokalik, a Yoruba pronunciation of Mechanic was picked from a popular scene is his late dad, Ade Love’s hit movie Taxi Driver.
Shooting will begin on August 27 and it will be captured in a space of 12 hours in a typical mechanic garage.
Mokalik Synopsis
The movie is centered around the life of a n11-year-old boy from the middle-class suburbs who spends the day as a lowly apprentice at a mechanic workshop in order to view life from the other side of the tracks.
From the moment a melancholic 11-year old boy, Jaiye, is dropped off at the mechanic workshop in the morning by his father, Ogidan, it is obvious he doesn’t want to be there. Ogidan hands the grumpy Jaiye over to the local Chairman, then leaves. Jaiye stands out like a sore thumb in the workshop as he commences his apprenticeship under various mechanics. Along the way, he meets other apprentices, some of who take a liking to him, others of who take a disliking to him.
As miserable as Jaiye is in his mechanical vocation, he finds himself taking to his apprenticeship like a duck to water. He also comes across the apple of his eye, a 21-year-old cute lady called Simi. He finds her easy to talk to, and he eventually confides in her why he’s really at the mechanic workshop – he came last in his primary school leaving exam, hence his father wants to see if he’s more interested in a vocation than education. The trouble is, he is beginning to enjoy the vocation.
Simi advises him to think very carefully through his options before arriving at any decision, as there is no easy route in life… just choices.
Throughout the day, Jaiye finds himself at the centre of all types of drama at the mechanic workshop, from rivalry, to a theft, to sabotage, to a pregnancy, to a fight… however he also sees the spirit of camaraderie, hard work, sacrifice and ambition amongst the other apprentices. He understands that this is more than just an apprenticeship to them – this is a passage of rites. When a former apprentice celebrates his ‘freedom’, and Jaiye sees the utter joy on the faces of all the other apprentices and mechanics, he realises that his decision is going to be far more difficult than he envisaged.
When the end of the day arrives, his father, Ogidan, arrives. Now Jaiye has to finally make up his mind if he wants to return to school… or take on his apprenticeship full time.