_OBARA’M: A MUSICAL DRAMA THAT MAKES YOU CRY LIKE A BABY

O’star Eze, the reviewer of this musical drama describes it as a Nollywood experiment in musical drama genre. It seems as if everyone in the movie is screaming, ‘Family is everything!’ His experience of the movie follows_

“Oluchi, your father is dead.”

Tears welled up my eyes. Emotions took over me. No one was looking so I could quickly take a couple of swipes at the corner of my eye to wipe of the tear.

The theme of Grandparents taking care of their grand children while their children run wild stood out from the movie, Obara m, like a sore thumb and really explored the parental love deficiency that plagues our Nigerian society.

Though I have some issues with the movie director, Kayode Kasum, in the way he went about weaving the musical aspect of the drama into the story, I quickly forgave him as he made up for it by using thespians of raw talent like Nkem Owoh and Onyeka Onwenu did my emotional bank in and this movie Obaram really left me spent of my tears.

How we make up excuses why we would not make time for our parents, visit them, send them goodies and spend time with them, and yet when they finally kaput, we come back to our senses and start missing them like we can never miss anything again. A gaping wound that nothing will ever close again till we take our last breath.

A thousand garlands to the screenplay writer, Sydney Okonkwo, who kept the lines short and simple while the storyline wove like dark clouds in a June sky.

That scene where Ihunanya was reading the post humous letter of her grandfather was another weep inspiring moment. It is only Indian movies that have gotten me this teary and that was as a teenager. As an adult reliving that teary moment was quite sobering.

I wanted to despise the Oluchi in me; that would not visit my mum as much as I should. As much as I would want to, all things being equal…and of course, there is never a time when all things can be equal. At the same time, I was glued to the screen of my phone following every scene of the Netflix movie, Obara m, hoping that the story would unfold a good reason for Oluchi turning out the way she is; a reluctant parent and runaway daughter and change the negative impression I have of the Oluchi character. But that good reason never came. Human are humans and we make mistakes. The question is whether we get a chance to make things right before we die.

“Aunty Oluchi, how old are you?“
“Are you very old?”

Now, those were the cutest lines of the movie…for me. That young lady that played the role of Ihunanya took her lines like a Queen.

The flashback came just at the right time. It was an antithesis that explored the theme of gold digging for survival and/or a life of comfort by Nigerian young girls and the traumatic crash that usually follows such mysterious wealth. Every young Nigerian lady can relate to this part of the story as single motherhood and the struggles that accompany it whereby the single mum is caught between building a career and raising a baby, making it almost impossible to love such babies. And then the part the grandparents of such out of wedlock babies play as their source of parental love and protection.

I wonder which other Nollywood star that could have interpreted that role better than veteran thespian Nkem Owoh. The single father’s struggle with raising a young lady especially one caught in pregnancy out of wedlock and the firmness and hard love needed to prevent her from ruining the next generation of their family line is explored too.

I think grandparents realize the mistakes they made in raising their children and try to make it right in their grand children.

Deux et Machina; the theme of resorting to a Higher Power in the verge to right all of one’s wrongs is then explored as Ihunanya gets a scholarship and entrance into the secondary with all expense paid. Oluchi experiences a turning point and the whole story wove around finding Ihunanya’s biological father and the drama around how the father can accept her into his home when he already has another family.

“I don’t need a sponsor, I need a father.”

Those words tore me apart. Ihunanya had lost her grandfather who had played the role of her parent and now she has found her biological father, she is faced with not being fully accepted by her father.

The Igbos have a saying that it is only a woman that knows who the true father of a child is. The theme of pinning fatherhood on who seems well to do among a girl’s boyfriends is explored in this movie too, alongside how the modern science of DNA test can help clear that confusion.

Obara m (which is Igbo for My Blood) is a home video that went to lengths to stoke love for family, for friends, for parents and for your child is truly a masterpiece and the few flaws I detected in some parts , I forgive as easily as humans are taught to forgive in order to coexist by the movie. Special thanks to Onyeka Onwenu for the depth she brought to the movie; Sydney Talker for bringing the comic relieve and Nancy Isime for the grace she brought to it as she switched between pidgin English and Queen’s English while navigating through the demands of her role as the principal actor.

I would give the movie a four star rating and recommend it for every home. This is the kind of movies Nollywood should be making; movies that make us see our society and their ills and see how we can make things right if we will.