Mildred Okwo’s earnest film about the conflicting romantic wishes in a Nigerian family struggles to connect with its promising premise
It’s a stretch for this Nigerian romcom to bill itself “the first Nollywood-Bollywood collaboration” based on the fact that it features, in Nimesh Diliprai Desai and Vineet Raina, two fringe Indian players on a sprawling wedding-invite list. But the two industries do indeed have much common ground, such as big-hearted family values and a penchant for grand gestural emotions that, in the case of Mildred Okwo’s somewhat heavy-footed film, trample on some promising concepts and narrative plausibility.
Silk-tressed bachelorette Aurora (Abena Akuaba) is being browbeaten by her businessman dad Eyimofe (Bob-Manuel Udokwu) to marry snoozefest suitor Tobore (Ifeanyi Kalu). She is hardly enthused when he parrots his criteria for embarking on “a collaboration with an individual or brand”: “value check, common interest, due diligence and critical analysis.” (Tobore ticks the boxes.) But she agrees to set a date on one condition: that Eyimofe must invite her mother, Isioma (Jennifer Eliogu) – booted out by Eyimofe many years back for wanting to pursue her career – to the big day.
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