I never really met him nor knew him
personally but I admired his acting skills onscreen whenever I watched the
movies he featured in. He was an actor who had a panache beyond comparison in
many of his roles. I always thought he was damned good.
That he is dead is a sad reality.
That he died at all when he lived and still lives in our hearts and on our
screens is the painful jolt to our systems. Because in Nollywood, actors (and
good ones too, in Muna’s mould) never really die. They only transcend to
another place where, perhaps, the ovation they receive over there gives lasting
peace to their souls.
N.B it’s smokes and not spokes. Big
typo. Was rushing out.
What can one really say about Muna?
I never knew much about him and perhaps many people did not as well. He seemed
to live a life less glimpsed in personal details than that more appreciated on
the television screens. He seemed to me to be a recluse.
And I might be wrong here but when
one reads his body language with the benefit of hindsight, one could begin to
piece together a deliberate insulation by the gifted actor from the public eye.
And there is nothing wrong with that. Many talented creatives all over the
world are like that. But Muna’s case stands out because it seemed like our
nosey and sensational entertainment press just could not get anything on him.
There were few stories or scandals about him and more reviews about his body of
work which is quite the hallmark of an artiste who exploits a mystique around
him.
He kept his life private and
perhaps, that privacy was as much a tragic flaw as it was a commendable
decision, depending on how one views it. He shunned selfies and self-serving
instagram posts about material acquisitions. He could well have lied, as most
of his colleagues do about his material wealth, just to ‘belong’. But he kept
it real. He did. I respect that.
There was no doubt that Muna was a
great actor. But he came across, to me, as one who had more of a brooding
disposition all the time off camera than one with a happy mien. He was more of
a mystery as a soft-spoken actor with a scowl and while that attribute in a
better clime would have added to his personal brand power, over here it (that
mystery about him) alienated him somehow from the fawning fans.
I find it personally distasteful
that someone, and someone perhaps consumed by grief or tactlessness, could
release the pictures of his last dying moments online. To prove what point?
That he was really dead? That he indeed was in a coma before he died?
It was the most dishonorable thing
to his memory to show him sprawled on a car seat, unconscious. In these days of
social media, where pictures never disappear, those final pictures are what
would be used to remember him more than others.
Muna was a damn good actor, really!
And I do not think his death is a closing of the final curtains of his act
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