‘Manganya’ releases new film: Living on Perfume
One of the country’s theater and film icons Michael Usi, who is widely known as Manganya in the arts industry has released a new film titled Living on Perfume and is expected on the market soon.
Manganya says the new movie, his third release after Dr Manga and Manganya in Action, is trying to reflect reality of life in social, political and other issues.
Depicting humanity, the all-around personality, who is also a playwright and musician, observes man is good at acting as he says “what you see on the face of people is not what is actually in the heart many times.”
“Perfume is not the natural odour of a person. We wear perfume because we don’t want people to come to terms with the smell that we produce, and this is the same with the reality of life as many people wear smiles while inside they are not smiling,” he says in an interview with Nyasa Times.
Manganya further says looking at marriage or love affairs these days; quite a number of relationships are surviving on ignorance: “If you knew the actualities of life, some of these relationships wouldn’t last at all, but impressions that we discern are what fuel our survival.”
Mostly a controversial character whose popular brand among the locals dates back to the 90s when he started appearing on various radio plays on Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Radio 1, Manganya reveals that Living on Perfume, which has several episodes, also cross-examines life in the country’s prisons.
“Prisons are ‘said to be’ places of reformation but the question is ‘how do you expect a human being who is living on three meals a day, sleeping in a comfortable home and is evil enough to kill and rape change when you subject him to only one meal a day and sleeping on a cold floor?” he questions.
“You’re actually turning that prisoner from a criminal to a beast, although they [prisons] are said to be areas of reformation,” observes the actor, who also stars in the popular Tikuferanji, a local TV soap he produces and is aired on Malawi Television (TVM).
He is calling upon the authorities to live to their mission statements that say prisons are places of reformation “because if they’re not, they are ‘living on perfume’.”
Filmed in Malawi and Burundi, Living on Perfume features Australian, British, Malawian and Swedish actors, and though he says he doesn’t want to blow his own trumpet, Manganya promises great work that will leave viewers glued to the screens.
“The characters are multinational because I am trying to look at cultural diversity and make a statement that ‘living on perfume’ is not only unique to Malawians but rather across boundaries,” he says.
A devoted Adventist, the talented actor who works for Adventist Relief Agency (ADRA) realized says his acting aptitude when he was in Form 3 at Mulanje Secondary School, south Malawi.
While enjoying his glare of publicity as an artist, Manganya has won several awards, both on the local and international scenes. In August 2008; he was honoured for his outstanding service to youth ministries using theatre by West Central Africa Division, Calabar, Nigeria.
He has also been to Denmark, Italy and numerous countries, where he has showcased his acting talent. Manganya also alleges that his name has been quoted in 152 countries across the world as a model that has used theatre for development.
On the local scene, he has won awards for Tikuferanji and the 2008 MBC entertainers of the year as ‘best actor’.
Living on Perfume is scheduled to be launched on August 1 at Comesa Hall in the commercial capital Blantyre, where it will be premiered starting 6:30pm.
This means movie lovers in Malawi should be expecting two local films to be released within the next two months, the other one being Charles Shemu Joya’s Seasons of a life, which recently scooped two awards during an international film festival in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
It is developments like these that clearly demonstrate that cinematography in the country is making headway, quite an encouraging advancement as households will now have local films to point at rather than having libraries populated with foreign, particularly Nigeria’s Nollywood movies.
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