Maami

Tunde Kelani’s “Maami” tells an age old story from a different perspective. The story introduces sports into a movie about struggling, it takes you on a journey that you might not have expected from the synopsis. It’s the same yet different, it’s simple yet rich, Maami is the story of a mother who is determined, against all odds – and there are odds, to raise her son and educate him while keeping her honor.

The movie does not overly dote on the usual suspects – sexual exploitation, abandonment, sexual harassment, or diabolical practices -it simply touches on them enough for the viewer to get the general idea without overbeating an already dented drum. The first appeal for me was the realness of the story. It does not portray the mother as a ‘yes man’ to all her son’s desires. She believes that her son is her all but she does not approach it from that view that most are tempted to fall into, which is the ‘if my son wants this I must go out of my way to do it and whatever my son desires is right’.

The mother is more Nigerian in her ways, I guess that’s why the movie is called “maami” and not ‘mother’. She wants the best for her son but as she is the only parent she still manages to find that balance between discipline and love.

The story cascades beautifully. Initially I was of the opinion that it was simply a mother’s struggle to bring her son up in the right way, period. I paid little attention to the other part of the synopsis that includes the part “…despite the hardships of society”, and the movie does a beautiful job in highlighting these hardships in a manner that’s easy to empathize with and relate to.

Funke Akindele was definitely the pillar of this movie. I won’t say she held the movie together because the story does a pretty decent job of holding its own, however, she was the force in this movie. She was phenomenal. I am tempted to say she killed it, but she murdered it, ripped it apart and served it on a beautiful platter of art.

The experience of watching Funke was less like an act and more like she was living it and there just happened to be a camera that streamed to my house. The experience was occasionally broken though whenever the little Kashi played by Ayomide Abatti came on screen. Ayomide vocally had the energy and the conviction, he was just incapable of emoting every now and then. However, it is a commendable performance by a child actor.

The question ofcourse comes in with Wole Ojo. Looking at this actor from fresh lenses since his AMBO time, I’m not certain if this movie really is anything to judge his acting by as the role didn’t really require much from him until the confrontation scene with Olumide Bakare. Fortunately he handled that scene quite tactfully, however, I don’t know if I can say the same about the rest of his scenes. Then again, not much was required of him, it was just a series of moping scenes so one really can’t tell.

There were a couple weak actors here and there, the story doesn’t strike you as ‘great’ from the beginning but it picks up pace, there are a lot of moments in this movie that are very endearing, you get the feeling that something’s missing in the movie but overall maami was a simple delight to watch.