‘BROWN Sugar Too Sweet For Me 2 – The Oil Dream’, the sequel of ‘Brown Sugar Too Sweet For Me’ which was produced and aired in 2013, will premiere at Movie Towne Guyana on February 19.
The two-hour and 35-minute drama movie is the product of Mahadeo Shivraj, a Guyanese producer based in New York, and will run until February 28.
In a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Shivraj said that the first movie dealt with human values and sacrifice.
“It was based on these parents who worked in the sugar plantation but they didn’t want their kids to become cane cutters. They wanted them to go to university and become graduates in different professions,” he explained.
He said that the sequel was influenced by the closure of sugar estates which left 7,000 workers unemployed. This was not only detrimental to them but their families as well.
“I came here for my mother-in-law’s funeral and I found out that people had committed suicide and things all stemming from that (the sugar estates’ closure),” he recalled.
He felt as though he needed to highlight this and simultaneously, Guyana’s emerging oil industry was making headlines.
“At the same time, there was the oil boom and everybody was talking about oil and maybe oil will bring an end to all the ills of society and bring, you know, there will be no poor person anymore, but at the end of it, I was thinking to myself, what if there’s an oil spill? Are we prepared for it?” he asked.
He said that instantly, he felt as though that would be the backdrop for his new movie. He then spoke to his friend, a writer, who was able to complete the movie script within a year. The movie was produced and set to air in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused a delay.
While the movie is fictitious, he said that it does address real-life situations and issues.
“…but there’s a makeup part about it with oil and gas and corruption and stuff like that in high places, because when all is said and done, you want to make something that’s entertaining,” he noted.
Shivraj shared that at the same time, he has made an effort to ensure that all of his previously released films, educate people in some manner and he hopes that this sequel will do the same.
In expressing the belief that enough is not being done to recognise the talent among Guyanese citizens, he shared an experience from when he produced part one of the movie.
“When I made sugar (Brown Sugar Too Bitter For Me), the first one, I went to Richmond Hill which is called Little Guyana and I took some fliers in relation to the movie and was handing out to people and saying, I just made this movie, that if you could come out to support,” he said.
He added: “A middle-aged woman took the flyer and threw it back at me and said, ‘bai, meen want see stupidness. Guyanese can make movie?’”
While this was a devastating experience for Shivraj, he did not allow that to stop him from realising his dreams.
He said that he truly believes that Guyana has talent and wishes for more resources to be made available to push the film industry further.
In the future, he says he plans to do other films which will include more young Guyanese. He stated that talks for a film he wants to produce later in the year have already begun.
