“Miss PJ”: A Murder Mystery With An Inspiring Tweak

James Abinibi’s Miss PJ, a murder mystery film, tells the story of a corp member’s sojourn in a town where she becomes instrumental in unraveling the mysterious deaths of young ladies. Starring Bimbo Ademoye in the lead role of Corper Patience Jideofor, PJ for short, a lady of exemplary conduct, the film explores sensitive issues such as girl child education, violence against women, ambition, desperation, betrayal of trust, and the inhumaneness of man. A few other popular actors, such as Sola Sobowale, Charles Okocha, Ibrahim Chatta, Chris Iheuwa, Sani Danja, and Kunle Afolayan play prominent roles, creating room for plausible tensions and suspicions while contributing to the unraveling incidents.

Sola Sobowale is Mrs Adeyemi, the principal of Otitodun Grammar School where Miss PJ has been posted for her youth service. For much of the story, the older woman is portrayed as a good-natured figure with the best interests of her students at heart. In a twist of events, the story reveals her true nature: an accomplice to her husband Mr Adeyemi’s (Chris Iheuwa) devious and diabolical ploy in the quest for regal power. Corper Festus (Charles Okocha) philanders with some of the town’s girls, rousing initial suspicions about his potential connection with the mysterious deaths. Ifabiyi, played by Ibrahim Chatta, is a traumatized man who is overprotective of his only daughter, Labisi. While he is also a suspect in connection with the deaths, he loses his daughter in the same painful manner—heavy bleeding through the privates. The chairman, played by Kunle Afolayan, is a government official that Miss PJ reaches out to for help in light of the incidents; and Inspector Garba (Sani Danja) leads the investigations working together with Miss PJ.

Miss PJ has a linear plot, with the organic progression of events from the titular character’s arrival to her discomfiture about the deaths, her contribution to investigations, and the eventual shocking discovery of the truth. The narrator is Feyi, one of the community ladies, who recalls her experiences in what appears to be a backstory capturing the timely, fated, and inspiring contributions of the titular character to the welfare of the community. Though having minimal involvement in the mainframe of the story, the narrator takes an omniscient, bird’s eye view position. The adoption of a narrator that is neither Mrs Adeyemi nor Miss PJ herself makes. James Abinibi, the film’s writer, producer, and director, maintains a degree of objectivity, allowing the audience to be the assessor and judge of the main characters without any prejudiced influence. We are made to see these characters for who they are and can decide whether or not to appreciate their values. The filmmaker plays the morality and didactic card in ways that appeal to Nigerian sensibilities and draw attention to different shades of human behavior, including straightforwardness and duplicity. Like in most Nigerian films, the nemesis catches up with the evildoers, while the protagonist has a legacy to her name.

Much of the acting in the film is far from sublime, but the naturalness of Bimbo Ademoye in her interpretation of the Igbo lady character sticks out. She speaks Igbo a few times with her colleague and tribesman, Festus, and struggles with proper Yoruba intonation and words while conversing with the townspeople. Nevertheless, the other characters are endowed and speak a mix of standard and broken English, and Yoruba, which facilitates narrative authenticity with a similar chaotic atmosphere as scenes of the dying ladies and their grieving loved ones.

Miss PJ rides on the wave of a tellingly feminist agenda in which the female gender is both a victim and a victor. In the film, as a victim, the female gender is the sacrificial object that is meant to guarantee Mr Adeyemi’s ascension to the throne. As a victor and Messiah, the female gender is viewed through the lenses of the protagonist—a strong-willed, audacious, and problem-solving woman. An offshoot of this feminist framework of the film is the travails of motherhood, which is particularly captured through the bereaved women. These diverse representations enable the filmmaker, who co-directed the recently released 5-episode Prime Video series Life and Dirt, to take a broader, direct but soulful shot at a combustible human world.