Baboo and Ticky are back and have their work cut out for them in the latest instalment of Judy Naidoo’s “Kings Of Mulberry Street: Let Love Reign”.
In the first film, which premiered at the box office in 2019 and starred child actors Shaan Nathoo and Liam Dunpath, viewers were treated to the two young Indian boys going to great lengths to rid their community of the local bully in order to protect their victims from their wrath.
The film won plenty of awards as it travelled to various film festivals internationally so it was only fitting to honour the local production with a sequel, which Naidoo who wears the writer, director and producer hat, does beautifully and in a way that’s dramatic, funny and most of all family-friendly.
Speaking to an excited Naidoo, who bagged the deal with Netflix to have the film shown from April 7, she revealed that she’s always imagined it would be a two-parter but didn’t know if funders would believe the story enough to back a sequel.
Lucky for her, they did, and four years later audiences will have the opportunity to indulge in one of the very few family-oriented local productions on offer on the streaming platform.
“The first ‘Kings’ was very well received locally and, especially internationally, you could see that it had legs, so I became a little bit hopeful that a second part would be possible.
“The fact that Netflix saw potential in the sequel made me very happy and I got to realise the initial vision of it being a two-parter,” Naidoo said.
While the first film was set in 1989, during the latter days of apartheid, Naidoo set this one in 1993, a year before South Africa’s democracy.
She said it was an important and interesting time period and hoped that its political backdrop would start a separate conversation for parents to talk to their children about that era.
“The boys are now 12 years old and on the brink of becoming teenagers so there is a personal change as well as a political world change happening for them.
“I don’t want to give it away, but we went to great lengths to be able to establish that time period and I think within the first couple minutes in the film we’ve set it up already.
“I hope that it will end up being a conversation piece for families as kids these days don’t even know Nelson Mandela or what it means to have been in prison for 27 years, they don’t know any of that context of that time and what democracy meant for us.
“And I’m writing this, especially from the perspective of an Indian community during that time period,” shared Naidoo.
Speaking about the plot, Naidoo explained how the outline came so easily to her during a five-hour layover in Dubai. Too tired to read, she pulled out her little black book and started outlining the story.
“Thereafter it was a matter of working it out how was everything was going to come together, how I am going to have so many people and still tie in all the storylines and make sense. And still, stay true to the original sequel.”
In the second instalment the two fearless heroes (Baboo and Ticky) come up with a daring plan and draw on the talents of other people including their own families to help rescue Granny Chetty.
The film sees double the cast of the first instalment with popular names like comedian Carvin Goldstone, Senzo Mthethwa and Kogie Naidoo in supporting roles.
“Every single role stands out in the film and everybody goes through transformation. Baboo’s father, Dev (Amith Sing) has to transform and play another role, and Tickey’s mother, Charmaine (Mayuri Naidu) goes from being ‘ghetto Charmaine’ to being another version, which I hope audiences will really like to see as all these characters transform in order to accomplish a certain goal,“ said Naidoo.
The film was shot from July to August last year for five weeks, with an extra six weeks of rehearsals to learn dialogues and dance routines.
On why viewers should tune in to watch the film, Naidoo said: “I think the child actors, all three of them, are just so amazing in this film and they’ve managed to accomplish what even professional adult actors haven’t been able to.
“They give character, emotional depth and dimension to their roles. They did it with so much love and enthusiasm and most importantly trust in me.
“Beyond that, it’s a great ensemble cast, the surprise in the film, I hope, would be the entertainment value that they are going to get out of the film and I really hope people treat themselves.
“People have said to me that it’s so entertaining and the music is so good and the performances are amazing, so I really do believe it’s all of that and it’s funny and still has all the Durban flavour, wit and humour.”
She also said his film is perfect to make people start feeling good about the province again after everything Durban’s been through over the past few years with the riots and floods.
Watch trailer.
“Kings Of Mulberry Street: Let Love Reign” is set to premiere on Netflix on April 7.