Someone might describe Heartstrings Entertainment as producing mere ‘situation comedy’ as if that was a trivial genre. But when the situation is economic, concerned with issues of survival, life and death, it’s also political.
Most Kenyans are feeling the economic pinch. They’re feeling it in terms of taxes designed by government and found in nearly every aspect of their ordinary everyday lives which are now extraordinarily tough.
Heartstring’s production of Guilty as Charged reveals just how dire the situation has become for Kenyans who feel the injustice of being told to ‘tighten their belts’, especially when their leaders fly by private jets and government helicopters costing multimillion- US dollars. They claim it’s in wananchi’s interest to have their leaders looking ‘presidential.
But the critics would claim the public are being bamboozled, hoodwinked, and mesmerised by their leaders who are using what George Orwell called ‘doublespeak’ or saying or doing one thing while really doing the opposite.
Don Carlo (Mitch) has devised his own bamboozling scheme to obtain the cash he needs to cover all his lavish expenses, including payment of child support to his ex-wife. That’s a spoiler since Don presents himself like a wealthy Godfather-like mafioso criminal, when he has a lot that he’s hiding to keep up his front.
In Guilty as Charged, one of Don’s hustles (a term hardly used these days due to wananchi’s disillusionment) is financing ‘games’ like the one devised by another inventive hustler (Fischer Maina) who pretends to be a handsome young rich man who’s meant to fulfill every women’s Mr Dream come true.
His hustles aim to identify wealthy women with a healthy cash flow which he can quickly cash into and then rob her blind. Don’s role is to finance Fischer at the outset of the game, after which he will be repaid with interest. But Fischer is many months in arrears of repayment and Don starts to torture him (through his body guards) to let him know he means business. Meaning pay up or you’ll be shut up.
The woman he wooed, quickly won, and then wedded, is Dr Irene, who’s a gynochologist (Njeri Hahuha) supposedly but is a hustler of her own. She loves the flat Fischer bought her (with Dom's dirty money). Unfortunitely, Fischer fell into his own trap, forgetting to run back to Dom with her money because he seriously fell for her and her two big children. Unfortunate too is the fact that all the people he has borrowed from are now coming to claim their pound of flesh. The first is Dom. But then comes the bank. Its representatives come to take away all his furniture, then comes the water man to turn off the water including the pipes. The electricity people turn off his electricity, so everything goes black.
Finally Irene shows up and Fischer confesses his crimes in part. She takes sympathy for him, she just happens to have four million in her bank that is for him to use. He suddenly perks up and quickly pays all his. Now the future looks bright, even as Don arrives, only to discover he’s been repaid every penny he is owed by Fischer.
Don in turn phones the mother of his two children to tell her he’s got child support for her, so where can they meet? They agree on phone that they can meet at her house. But as she begins to give him directions she returns from the bedroom and finds he’s the one speaking to her. But how come? Why is he who has been given a court order demand he not see his children at their mom’s request to the court. But here is the spoiler: Don is the one struggling to pay Dr Irene, his ex-wife child support which apparently are quite high. Now the truth be told that Fischer was being blackmailed by Don because Fischer murdered somebody, and though he claims it was an accident it doesn’t look that way. But seeing Dom being at the mercy of Dr Irene was great news to Fischer.
Their amusement was short-lived however. Dom and Fischer were not the only ones weaponising love to use it as a tool to achieve their goals. For the Special Branch, undercover agents were regularly sent out to find criminals, especially extortionists and murderers like Fischer and Don. That Dr Irene was working for the Special Branch all the time she was with Fischer and even with Dom is the biggest shock of them all.
wealthy women with a healthy cash flow which he can quickly cash into and then rob her blind. Don’s role is to finance Fischer at the outset of the game, after which he will be repaid with interest. But Fischer is many months in arrears of repayment and Don starts to torture him (through his body guards) to let him know he means business. Meaning pay up or you’ll be shut up.
The woman he wooed, quickly won, and then wedded, is Dr Irene, who’s a gynochologist (Njeri Hahuha) supposedly but is a hustler of her own. She loves the flat Fischer bought her (with Dom's dirty money).
Unfortunitely, Fischer fell into his own trap, forgetting to run back to Dom with her money because he seriously fell for her and her two big children. Unfortunate too is the fact that all the people he has borrowed from are now coming to claim their pound of flesh. The first is Dom. But then comes the bank. Its representatives come to take away all his furniture, then comes the water man to turn off the water including the pipes. The electricity people turn off his electricity, so everything goes black.
Finally Irene shows up and Fischer confesses his crimes in part. She takes sympathy for him, she just happens to have four million in her bank that is for him to use. He suddenly perks up and quickly pays all his. Now the future looks bright, even as Don arrives, only to discover he’s been repaid every penny he is owed by Fischer.
Don in turn phones the mother of his two children to tell her he’s got child support for her, so where can they meet? They agree on phone that they can meet at her house. But as she begins to give him directions she returns from the bedroom and finds he’s the one speaking to her. But how come? Why is he who has been given a court order demand he not see his children at their mom’s request to the court.
But here is the spoiler: Don is the one struggling to pay Dr Irene, his ex-wife child support which apparently are quite high. Now the truth be told that Fischer was being blackmailed by Don because Fischer murdered somebody, and though he claims it was an accident it doesn’t look that way. But seeing Dom being at the mercy of Dr Irene was great news to Fischer.
Their amusement was short-lived however. Dom and Fischer were not the only ones weaponising love to use it as a tool to achieve their goals. For the Special Branch, undercover agents were regularly sent out to find criminals, especially extortionists and murderers like Fischer and Don. That Dr Irene was working for the Special Branch all the time she was with Fischer and even with Dom is the biggest shock of them all.
