[blockquote align=”centre” author=”EfikoScore: 5/10″ style=”font-size: 30px”] Hamisha Daryani Ahuja’s follow-up to Namaste Wahala is a six-episode series that fails to reward its viewer’s investment. [/blockquote]
Aunty Bunmi (Sola Sobowale) is a boisterous Lagos socialite who, after the death of her husband, has decided to live out the rest of her life in festivity. But her deteriorating health and the threat of cancer forces her to take things seriously. Her son, Yemi (Tobi Bakre), is a cash-strapped superstar-wannabe. Bunmi’s brother, Olumide (Richard Mofe Damijo), is an ageing grouch. Zainab (Rahama Sadau) and Dr. Siddarth (Rajniesh Duggal) make up an interracial couple at a crossroad.
These characters have their stories told in Postcards, a series featuring some impressive acting across six episodes. As with Hamisha Daryani Ahuja’s previous project, Namaste Wahala, Postcards proceeds on the Nigeria-India vibe.
The screen bursts with chemistry, especially between Sadau and Duggal that it’s hard to believe these are their first scenes together. That their characters haven’t always been on our screens sparring and making up with each other. Olumide and Kabir (Late Rio Kapandia), his best friend/accountant, produce some of the show’s most enjoyable moments. As for Sobowale, her chemistry is with the camera. Her performance here never goes over the top; if anything, she’s exudes warmth.
As her son, Bakre never really arrives. It is apparent that after two solid performances in Brotherhood and Gangs of Lagos, receiving the AMVCA trophy for Best Actor in the process, Bakre is having a hard time getting into roles outside the action film genre. It’s fitting that he brings nothing from those films into his performance in Postcards—beyond his toned physicality. But he is ill-suited as Yemi, an average Joe-shaped character. His attempt at boyishness and petulance are pallid and unconvincing. He should be the worst actor on the roster, if not for the surprise introduction of Nancy Isime who, as Zainab’s friend, Isioma, gives a performance only worthy of wax figures.
The story is dependent on supposedly random occurrences and Ahuja and company try to create an air of disconnection between the characters but the narrative that unfolds can’t back it up. For a family with members so out of touch with each other, Aunty Bunmi, Olumide, and Yemi seem to have far too many reasons to be in India at the same time. And when one considers the chance meetings and reconnections laced through the film, it becomes evident that Postcards takes the idea “it’s a small world” to its most extreme. Too much of the action run on contrivance.
It doesn’t help that the production is quite spiritless and the dance numbers haphazard as though unrehearsed. A bully is thrown in the mix, but one can only watch in irritation as his arc dawdles towards a predictable end. Finally, there’s no onscreen justification for superstar wannabe, Yemi, getting flown all the way to another continent for a chance at stardom. He’s certainly not talented enough for the opportunity.
In the end, Postcards doesn’t pose any real danger to the soul and psyche of the viewer. But it all comes to feel like a robbery of the viewer’s time.
