Namaste Wahala film evaluation: Indo-Nigerian romance misses the mark

Express News Service
Namaste Wahala is a uncommon Indo-Nigerian manufacturing, about an Indian boy, Raj, falling for a Nigerian woman, Didi, in Lagos. It’s a novel idea, given how few interracial love tales of its form exist. There is, nonetheless, a deeper connection. Both India and Nigeria have robust nationwide cinemas, and the movie is finest considered as a union of two industries, and never the cultural landmark it claims to be.

The director is Hamisha Daryani Ahuja, a restaurant proprietor turned filmmaker in Lagos (she additionally seems as a personality within the movie). Hamisha, whose dad and mom are Indian, pays tribute to the Hindi rom-coms she loves. Investment banker Raj (Ruslaan Mumtaz) meets NGO lawyer Didi (Ini Dima-Okojie) and immediately decides to marry her. Didi’s father (Richard Mofe-Damijo) objects to the proposition — the OG battle in a Bollywood romance. Raj even says, “this isn’t a Bollywood movie”, which might solely imply it’s. 

The templating isn’t good. The pop monitor ‘I Don’t Wanna Let You Go’ suggestions its hats to quite a few Hindi numbers, however, missing background dancers, falls woefully flat. Similarly, when Raj and Didi have an argument — their first true emotional second within the movie — the trade is interrupted by a name from his mother. Actor Sujata Sehgal enlivens proceeds as she lands in Nigeria and besieges her son’s life. When she first meets Didi, her blanched expression offers away lots, although outwardly she worries if an African woman could make chole bhatures like her.

There’s one other amusing character, Raj’s finest buddy Emma (Koye Kekere Ekun), seemingly written to interpret the tradition shock for international viewers (Raj turning up in a western outfit to fulfill Didi’s dad and mom isn’t humorous till Emma explains why it’s). Though Raj has the everyday hero-sounding identify, the movie is instructed from Didi’s perspective. She spends a bit of the plot contesting her personal domineering father.

She’s headstrong and impressive — a break from the weeping, obsequious heroines of ’90s Bollywood. In one scene, she engages her would-be mother-in-law in aggressive cooking. It’s a closely contrived second, one acquainted to most Bollywood followers, but Dima-Okojie rescues it along with her pure spunk. 

An even higher subversion of a well-liked trope comes in a while. In DDLJ (1995), Anupam Kher leaves all the things behind to assist his lovelorn son. Raj’s dad in Namaste Wahala is liberal too, however can’t be bothered to depart his cricket match and be part of the farce. Leave your children alone, he appears to say, they’ll determine it out.

Movie: Namaste WahalaSolid: Ruslaan Mumtaz, Ini Dima-Okojie, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Sujata SehgalDirector: Hamisha Daryani AhujaStreaming on: NetflixRating: 2.5/5