128 african appropriations
showstoppers, and music composed by the popular composer A. R. Rah-
man. The film’s lovers meet in the countryside, where Mansi (Aishwarya
Rai) lives with her father, a poor musician, and Manav (Akshaye Khanna),
the London-raised son of an Indian tycoon, spends his holidays in his
father’s manor. Despite the class difference, Manav’s father befriends
Mansi’s—yet for selfish reasons, as it turns out later. A fter Manav, who has
promised to wed Mansi, leaves for Mumbai, Mansi persuades her reluctant
father to travel to Mumbai, too. They are met with hostility at the house
of Manav’s father. Manav’s paternal aunt verbally assaults Mansi’s father,
calling him a dog and a pimp. Deeply hurt and suddenly realizing that his
new “friend” has betrayed his trust, Mansi’s father slaps Manav’s father. The
two lovers side with their respective fathers. Eventually, the lovers split up.
Reconciliation takes place only after another one and a half hours, when
Mansi is on the verge of marrying the music producer who meanwhile
has fostered her career as an internationally acclaimed singer. But Manav
finally triumphs in his desperate bid to win her back, and they wed.
With its opening sequence shot in Jidda, Khusufi foregrounds the cos-
mopolitan ties of its male protagonist, something to which Ta a l merely
alludes. K halid (Ahmed S. Nuhu) is the son of a rich Kano-based mer-
chant. A fter finishing school in Saudi Arabia, he returns to Nigeria. Back
home, he visits his father’s country house, where he “discovers” Hajjo
(Maijidda Ibrahim) and immediately falls in love with her. Like Manav
in Ta a l , Khalid hides out and starts taking snapshots of the village girl,
using a small handheld camera. His voyeuristic gaze, amplified by the
camera, turns into that of the spectator. The lovers’ first encounter takes
the form of a song-and-dance sequence. In this musical number, Hajjo is
dressed in traditional Fulbe attire; this is a far cry from the tight West-style
garb on display in other Hausa films, which had been deemed scandalous.
However, in Khusufi it is not so much the dress but the suggestive move-
ment of the girl’s upper body, gliding back and forth in slow motion, and
t he ca merawork foc usi ng on her bosom, t hat caused cont rovers y. R everse
footage of Khalid, who snaps pictures of Hajjo while she is dancing, con-
t i nuously suggests t hat t he v iewer sees Hajjo as a n object of K ha l id ’s (a nd
the viewer’s) desire.
W hile earlier Hausa films would likely introduce a second suitor at
this point, favored by the girl’s parents and therefore an obstacle to the