First Thoughts
This was a funny movie. I loved the sibling dynamic between Abuchi and Flora. The two of them were just chaos walking.
The Cast and Crew
Alex Ekubo as Abuchi
Mercy Aigbe as Iya Ronke
Anita Joseph Olagunju as Flora
Etinosa Idemudia as Aunty Ruth
Sandra Okunzuwa as Ronke
Nosa Rex as Banji
Nazo Ekezie as Ada
Kitay Okotete as Lekan
Jessica Tsevende as Abike
Lucy Edet as Angela
Christian Ochiagha as Udoka
Uzoma Nkemjika as Emeka
Written by Dabby Chimere
Produced by Dabby Chimere
Directed by Dabby Chimere
Full Story
The movie starts with a woman, Esther entering a man’s car. The man, Abuchi, prostrates to greet her sarcastically for wasting his time and the girl says she took her time to look good for him. They going on a date – with each other. She asks him where he is taking her and he replies
“I am taking you to a local restaurant”
and she retorts
“I am watching my weight, I can’t go to such places to eat. Why don’t we go to Oriental Hotel, I hear they have a nice menu”.
Abuchi stops the car and says
“Get out of my car. Since you want to lose weight, you can jog back to your house”
That whole opening made me howl
In was sucked in immediately.
A young man, Lekan sings while he is dressing up. He is broke with no money but is hopeful his music will make him rich someday. As he leaves his house, the scene changes to a young woman making a video for an accounting job. Her name is Ronke and her friend, Ada is doing the recording. Her mother Iya Ronke comes out to scold her for not attending to her customers and so Ronke rushes in to join her aunt, Aunty Ruth to serve the customers.
While she is working, her aunty teases her about her boyfriend who is approaching. When the boyfriend enters Iya Ronke’s canteen (Rush Hour Canteen), it is Lekan, the starving artist. Lekan offers to help wash dishes for the canteen. Iya Ronke sees him washing the dishes and she rolls her eyes. In her mind, that boy just wants to deceive her daughter and leave her like Ronke’s father did to her.
Esther narrates the horrible date she had with Abuchi to his sister, Flora. Flora asks her what she said to annoy Abuchi and Esther says she asked that they go to Oriental Hotel for their date. Flora argues that Esther shouldn’t have said that – at least not on the first date. Flora’s statement annoys Esther and she leaves.
With Esther gone, Flora calls Abuchi on the phone to chastise him for how he treated her friend but Abuchi insists that he did the right thing as Esther is nothing but a longerthroat.
Abuchi’s friend, Udoka takes him to Rush Hour Canteen to eat, while they are there, Abuchi isn’t impressed with how “local” the place looks and doubts the food would be nice. After eating though, Abuchi changes his mind but that is not the only thing he notices.
While he and Udoka are talking, Abuchi says to Udoka
“6% of 46 million is…”
and Ronke answers but apologises immediately for interrupting their conversation.
Abuchi then calls Flora and promises to buy her business class tickets for her next trip if she follows him somewhere the next day. They go to Rush Hour and after Ronke waits on them, Flora knew what was up. Abuchi asks her to collect Ronke’s number which she does under the pretence of giving the canteen a contract to cook for her birthday party.
When Ronke is at Flora’s house, Flora comes clean – there is no birthday party. Flora only invited Ronke over to let Ronke know how Abuchi feels about her. Ronke makes it clear that she has a boyfriend but Flora pleads with her to think about it.
Flora still allows Ronke to cook for her to store in the fridge. But Ronke is cooking, Abuchi arrives Flora and Flora informs Ronke of his presence. She begs Ronke to listen to what Abuchi has to say but “no pressure”.
Abuchi and Ronke talk and she reiterates that she has a boyfriend. Abuchi then asks for friendship and their conversation deviates to her degree and school. He even shows her a business plan for a laundromat he plans to open. Talk join talk, he offers her a job which she accepts.
After that meeting, Abuchi visits the Rush Hour canteen for lunch every day and on one of those days, he comes face to face with Lekan. Lekan immediately marks his territory by holding on to her and kissing Ronke on the cheek. He also offers Abuchi a handshake but when Abuchi is about to shake him, he leaves Abuchi hanging.
They then leave for the studio where Lekan is recording his first track: “Ronke”. In the studio, Lekan records the track and his producer Banji is excited and is sure it will be a hit.
The next day Ronke resumes work but Abuchi is not happy with her. Nevertheless, she bribes him with egusi soup. They work closely and while Ronke is showing him things on the computer, Abuchi just stares at her like a love-struck puppy. Even Flora who comes around wonders why Abuchi is torturing himself working with a woman he can’t have.
Abuchi returns home that night and finds his thieving ex-girlfriend, Angela in his parlour. He is not happy she is back because she stole from him and left the country. He offers her a room to spend the night and the next morning, he collects his house keys back.
Ronke visits him and meets Angela, who excuses herself as she is on her way out. Ronke says she came to check on him because he wasn’t at the office and he didn’t pick up her calls. She also acts like she is kind of jealous of another woman being around Abuchi.
Abuchi explains himself, stating that Angela is just an ex-girlfriend who returned from abroad and needed a place to stay before booking a hotel.
It is Abuchi’s birthday and he is grumpy because Flora forced him to have a beach party. However, his mood changes to happy when Ronke arrives with her bestie, Ada. Lekan goes to Rush Hour canteen and finds Iya Ronke with Aunty Ruth seated, talking to each other. He asks of Ronke and Iya Ronke answers him rudely while Aunty Ruth says she doesn’t know where she is but promises to tell Ronke to call him when she gets back.
Lekan doesn’t believe her though, so he asks the canteen staff, Abike the loose lips and she sings like a canary. Lekan goes to the beach, obstructs the party and is ready to get into a fistfight with Abuchi.
When he and Ronke leave the scene, she isn’t happy with him but Oga Lekan the toxic lover goes into some spiel about how he just got signed by a record company and wanted to share the good news with her.
The news puts a smile on Ronke’s face and she is happy for him. Abuchi on the other hand vows revenge by ruining Lekan’s party. So on the night of Lekan’s unveiling by the record label, Abuchi shows up with Flora, Udoka and his cousin, Emeka. Immediately Lekan sees them, he stops singing and leaves the stage.
Ronke follows him and this asshole talks down on Ronke. He asks her why she wants that “useless Igbo guy” (a derogatory phrase he uses to describe Abuchi numerous times) and goes further to accuse Ronke of sleeping with Abuchi.
Ronke is hurt by what he said and leaves the club with Abuchi who takes her home. While they get to her stop, opens up to Ronke about Angela. He and Angela dated a while back and she stole a huge amount of money from him. After she stole the money she travelled abroad and he didn’t hear from her until now. Ronke sympathises with him and they kiss – briefly but then she leaves calling it a mistake.
After that kiss, she stops working for Abuchi and doesn’t pick up his and Flora’s calls. She concentrates solely on Lekan who is now a superstar musician with a lot of money and goons. Abuchi becomes depressed because he is so in love with Ronke, he is sad he can’t have her and blames himself for not respecting her boundaries. Flora empathises with him and even goes to the Rush Hour canteen to talk to Ronke on Abuchi’s behalf. Sadly, she was interrupted by Lekan who always manages to be lurking in the corner waiting for Abuchi or Flora to show up.
Ronke begins to resent all the attention she is getting for being Lekan’s girlfriend. She would prefer it if Lekan allowed her to live a private life while he does his thing publicly. Lekan doesn’t listen though. He wants to whole world to know she is his girl – which isn’t a bad thing, but I think his intentions weren’t pure. I think he was showing her off to stick it to Abuchi.
Anyway, Ronke and Abuchi finally meet and Ronke confess that she has feelings for him but she isn’t sure there is more to it because he loves her boyfriend. While they were talking, Lekan shows up with thugs and they roughhandle Abuchi. Since Lekan is now rich, he exhibits his “big manism” by having thugs on speed dial.
Lekan’s manager isn’t too happy with Lekan’s actions and tells him that a love which makes him act unhinged is not love (I agree – behaviour was giving unhealthy obsession). So in a last-ditch effort to tie Ronke down, Lekan proposes to Ronke but she rejects his proposal.
She tells him that she loves him but she cannot marry him – she doesn’t want the fame being with him brings. He vows to give it up for her but she refuses because he has worked too hard to become the person that he is. It would be wicked of her to take it away from him. They both cry and he leaves.
He goes home to nurse his broken heart and public humiliation that came with the botched proposal while Ronke goes to Abuchi to cry and they spend the night together.
In the end, Lekan channels his heartbreak emotions into a song which becomes a hit. Abuchi and Ronke become a thing and Iya Ronke is happy her daughter chose a mature and stable man to build a life with.
Rating out of 10
I give it 🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤
I liked this movie a lot for a myriad of reasons. The first is that it was a very funny film. Alex Ekubo and Anita Joseph were a riot. The two of them together made this movie a joy to watch. Even Nazo Ekezie too was hilarious as Ada.
Second reason was because of the lesson it taught – “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it’s yours. If not, it was never meant to be.”
Abuchi LOVED Ronke but when he realised he couldn’t have her, he gave up. He tried he tried his best not to pressure her. Lekan however, was full steam.
Lekan never stopped to consider if the person he loved felt the same way nor listened to their wants and needs. My guy was just Jhene Aiko-ing (as per: he loved himself enough for the both of them). Also, I don’t think what Lekan had for Ronke was love: that was obsession. That is the kind of “love” that would make you commit a murder-suicide crime.
Now to the things I didn’t like – the ending. For all the stress Abuchi through, it would have been nice to see him enjoying his relationship with Ronke. Another thing I wasn’t too keen on was the editing. I strongly believe there were scenes we saw after that should have come before. I may be wrong but that’s what I feel.
Nevertheless, the movie was so good.
Myopic Concaves 
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