The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Correspondent
Viewers on the national broadcaster are set to get a taste of Bulawayo township life starting this Monday, with locally made series Dlala Ngamla set to make its debut on ZBC TV.
Starring drummer cum actor Lungile Ndlovu and Vanessa Muzarurwi, who will be supported by model Bernard Ben Chest Ndlovu and Collin Ncube, Dlala Ngamla is set to continue the tradition of great Bulawayo TV dramas that have sparkled on the local small screen.
Written by Blessings Ndlovu and directed by Rasquesity Keaitse, Dlala Ngamla is a multilingual drama set on the dusty streets of Bulawayo’s Nketa suburb.
In the series synopsis Creative Pot, the brains behind the project, stated that Dlala Ngamla is a television series that seeks to address urban and peri-urban stories that affect young people. The television series is based on a chess game, with the central premise being that each and every character represents a chess piece.
The protagonist Siphiwe is a 23- year old orphaned lady. She has a dream of becoming the countries’ leading female filmmaker in a male dominated field. The Antagonist Thabo, a 26 year- old man, is sent undercover to fall in love with Siphiwe in a mission to recover a classified file that belonged to Siphiwe’s mother.
In a game of cloak and dagger, decisions made by characters in the television drama represents moves that happen in a chess game that is linked to the powers which the chess pieces possess. For example, Thabo takes advantage of Siphiwe’s financial situation and filmmaking dream to get close to her and to succeed in recovering the classified for his boss.
“Bulawayo has a history of bringing groundbreaking drama series to the small screen and I hope this production continues in that vein. Filming it with other enthusiastic young creative people was also great and seeing it come to life will no doubt be pleasing,” said one of the drama’s main actors Lungile Ndlovu.
