Namaste Wahala; Did Nollywood really have to ??
Written by Ella Ogunnbi
The male lead tells the female in one scene “you should have prepared your parents” when he attempted to meet them. God knows it's really the viewers that should have been prepared to feel apathy when watching this “romantic film” that seems more like a low-budget indomie relish ad with its pitch falling flat each and every time.
Namaste Wahala strives to portray the common Bollywood plot of star-crossed lovers. Boy meets girl, falls in love, parents on both sides not in support of their relationship but this time, with a Nollywood-Bollywood crossover meant to provide an entertaining twist. Spoiler alert: It did not. Instead, you get 106 minutes of zero chemistry, bad acting, appalling hair and makeup (makes you wonder if it's a bring your own makeup to set type deal), over-enthusiastic generic same-gender best friends with the band-aid of including some OG actors slapped over the hot mess.
Actor Ruslam Mumtaz is cast as Raj, an investment banker and he conveniently bumps into Nollywood actress Ini Dima-Okojie (who plays Didi) on the beach during an early morning jog with both parties looking straight ahead despite their eyesight seeming perfectly normal as neither were portrayed to be wearing glasses
Raj then proceeds to tell Didi “I will marry you” in the next scene. Keep in mind this is just about 10 minutes into this indomie ad- I mean romance movie. One charring not-so-romantic montage later, reality sets in as their “love” faces the obstacle of parental approval with Raj being rejected by Didi’s outraged father (Richard Mofe- Damijo). Didi equally faces similar rejection with Raj’s mother (Sujata Segal) who comes to visit, from India unexpectedly.
She appears hostile to Didi and believes she (Didi) cannot take care of her son. The inclusion of a non-existent kitchen war is supposed to add to the comedy as his mother creates a spread of Indian cuisine for her son after a tiring day of work while Didi makes Indomie relish claiming “Raj loves Indomie”. Despite the desire to promote the brand, it's quite unlikely the presence of some jollof rice or native soup would interfere with the dull plot.
The over-ambitiousness of trying to develop Didi’s line of work (social worker) and portray her whimsical legal skills really seemed to spell “Wahala” for the movie. The rushed mini storyline didn’t give viewers a chance to really connect with the emotions behind it and ended up adding to the mess- I mean movie in general.
In some cases, a bad movie is so bad it becomes funny. Namaste Wahala however does not seem to make the cut for those special cases. It was just simply bad. Regardless of it literally translating to “Hello Trouble”, It seems to be quite difficult locating the trouble that would have awoken viewers from their existential slumber.
