Obara’M

You know that moment when you are starving and right before ‘food don done’? You might find a packet of the world’s best biscuit and even if you eat boxes upon boxes of it, biscuit doesn’t quite fill up and satisfy the same way actual food does. The writing in Obara’m doesn’t quite satisfy the way a fleshed out story would.

Obara’m begins with the struggles of Papa (Nkem Owoh) as he balances caring for the young and sharp-mouthed Ihunanya (Darisimi Nadi) with his hustle as a keke driver. Papa constantly tries to reach out to his other daughter in Lagos, Oluchi (Nancy Isime) but she refuses to respond. All this continues, until Papa suddenly dies and Oluchi has to return for the funeral and take on the responsibility of caring for Ihunanya.

The cinematography of the movie is spectacular. The pictures are nothing short of beautiful and the way most of the scenes are lit with gold light dancing upon the skins of our beautiful black characters is truly the sort of poetry in motion that the music of Obara’m aimed to achieve but constantly missed. Nkem Owoh as ‘Papa’ in a role that does not require comedy reminds us here why he is truly considered a nollywood veteran. He balances so many emotions on his face and within his eyes in many-a-scene without ever speaking a word. It is almost sad that he is paired here with an actress who is not quite able to match his emotional stride within scenes. Nancy does decently in Obara’m as she does in every other movie. However, it’s hard to shake the feeling that another actress playing Oluchi would have truly set the scenes in this movie on fire.

Regardless, the fire was nowhere near lost in this film thanks to Darisimi Nadi. The little girl who plays Ihunanya is a glory to behold from her very first scene to the absolute last one. In every scene she is in, she is the star. At such a young age, she has managed to master her timing and expressions in a way that is uncommon. Safe to say, she out-performs Nancy in every shared scene and it is not because of the nature of Ihunanya’s character. It’s a true skill. A skill we are excited to get to watch as she continues to grow and hopefully do more work.

Obara’m is a nollywood musical. A genre of which we do not get too many entries in the industry. It is perchance due to this lack of familiarity with this genre that certain lapses constantly occur in the film. The most glaring of which is the lip-syncing situation. Many times the lyrics being heard versus the lyrics being mouthed by the character on-screen are incongruent. Other times, the energy of the voice versus the energy of the performer on screen also do not match. The sound issues in Obara’m is really the primary ditch that the film falls into.

“Imagine! Sound of Music? In Nigeria?! In 2023?”

Asides the syncing issues, the song choices for the entire film seemed like a huge missed opportunity. The songs chosen here, though they had a local element with pidgin and igbo lines inserted, still felt very western and white-washed in its influences. The funeral scene was particularly discombobulating as we see a supposedly local scene with the great Onyeka Onwenu at the mic, yet the music might as well have been country music by an aspiring Dolly Parton. The moments in the song where the lyrics go “wetin Oluchi go do?” sounded awfully reminiscent of the lines “how do we solve a problem like Maria?” from Sound of Music. Imagine! Sound of Music? In Nigeria?! In 2023? As if we do not have our own sound? Yes, every musical does not need to have the instruments and tone of the old Adekunle Gold type ballads. However, those sort of songs worked because they managed to elevate any scene they were played in. And Obara’m surely had one too many scenes that needed elevation.

A lot of this need arises from the glossed over writing. There are too many missed opportunities in the writing as well. Yes, a backstory was shown but proper attention isn’t given to the character of Oluchi and truly showing her heart. Especially not in any type of way that would bring the audience to the tears required by the victories of the final scenes. The writing in Obara’m seems to rely too profoundly on the music to fill in the gaps, and the music was never fully able to rise to the challenge.

Obara’m, however, is a sweet and splendid watch. It is just so sad to see it while being able to visualize the high prospects it had. A story like this is not much different from a story like “Stepmom“, the main missing ingredient is the heart.