MOVIE REVIEW
MOVIE TITLE: Battle on Buka Street
SOURCE: Prime Video Naija
GENRE: Drama/Comedy
HEADING: A Nollywood drama comedy with not so serious fighting scenes, plenty Igbo grammatical blunders and Amala eating.
STARRING:
Funke Akindele. Mercy Johnson. Sola Sobowale. Bimbo Ademoye. Nkem Owoh. Femi Jacobs. Michael Afolayan. Tina Mba.
STORY: Two step sisters caught in the web of their mother’s rivalry, battle it out on the streets of the Otanwa Community.
REVIEW:
An all glaring sore point in the movie is the role of Awele and her children. The producers should have given us people who were naturally Igbo.
We saw the easy acting and camaraderie between Asake and her daughter Yejide, we didn’t see it between Ezinne and her daughter Awele.
The Yoruba speaking was seamless even between Yejide and her children, the same should have been done in Awele’s case.
Mercy Johnson was like a square peg in a round hole, because how do you explain “I bụ Ijiot” she kept repeating and “Mma slapu gị now”
Chioma Chukwuka would have been the perfect fit for Awele.
I’m going to stop here because I might go on and on as this was one sore point for me that grated. Nollywood producers should please endeavour to avoid situations like this, and they mostly do it regarding Igbo language and actors.
We have enough Igbo actors who could have played the role of Ezinne and Awele and her children perfectly well and gave us the seamless performance we saw between Asake and Yejide
I’m not even going to talk about the twins.
Battle on Buka Street really doesn’t have much going on except the fighting scenes and the attempts at reconciliation and forgiveness.
We also see a polygamous family dynamic and inter tribal marriage happenings.
It also was too long a movie for the simple storyline. The fights just went on and on and then they took a reprieve to tell us Lashile’s story.
There were a few plot holes though like:
How did Awele and her neighbour Kareem become friends?
The story surrounding Lashile’s prison sentence, the hurried flashback by Yejide didn’t really cover it.
How did Awele change her mind at last.
I think it would have been better if Yejide had not been the narrator. She starting off the narration praising herself and her mother, it didn’t give Awele the chance to do same.
It felt like a one sided conversation.
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN .
Funke Akindele and Sola Sobowale eat characters like this for breakfast.
Mercy Johnson. Would it be wrong if I said she was doing too much, and the Igbo grammatical blunders wasn’t helping much?
Bimbo Ademoye and Femi Jacobs didn’t really have much scenes but they did justice to their scenes.
Nkem Owoh and Tina Mba these are veterans we love to see anytime.
Battle on Buka Street is a movie that has everything that makes a nollywood movie great and interesting.
I added Comedy to its genre, but truth be told I wasn’t laughing at any point in the movie.
It was two hours of not so serious fighting, Igbo grammatical blunders, and Amala eating.
To wrap it up, the ending was rushed, because for a fight that had been going on for decades, the reconciliation happened like magic and it wasn’t even between the two women who started it, so we are left believing Asake and Ezinne were still enemies.
Battle on Buka Street is the highest Nollywood grossing movie ever. I’ll leave you to decide if it is worth that accolade.
It’s a beautiful movie nonetheless.
Should you watch? Yes just so you won’t feel left out.
Rating: 7.5/10.
Side musings.
I didn’t understand Nkem Owoh’s beards.
Awele’s mother went into labour first. Yejide’s mother had a CS because she wanted to give birth the same day.
Isn’t it fair to say she started the rivalry?
She also looked like the second wife.
Credit Precious Ndumanaya
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