Over the years, Christmas in Nigeria has been celebrated by watching movies with white characters and storylines that aren’t even Nigerian enough for us to relate to. ‘A Naija Christmas’ produced by Kunle Afolayan gave us the hope of a difference this time around.
If for nothing at all, we hoped to have a movie that reflects the Nigerian reality, with faces we are familiar with, done in a way that can put a smile on our faces, throughout the movie and even after the movie has ended.
‘A Naija Christmas’ has the best names in Nollywood as the cast of the movie, so we expected nothing short of a fun-filled, interesting, mind-blowing movie. With people like the late Rachel Oniga as the mother of three boys in Kunle Remi, the eldest son who is a serial womanizer, Efa Iwara, the less social brother who isn’t sure which woman he wants, and Abayomi Alvin, the last son with secret love life.
The movie follows the life of this family with the sons trying to fulfill the wish of their mother – to bring home a wife before Christmas. Rachel Oniga’s desire follows the realization that she was the only one among her peers at her church with grown children that don’t have wives or children.
She went ahead to mount pressure on the three boys, making them realize anyone of them that can bring a wife home first inherits the luxurious family house.
Kunle Remi, the first son who is a serial womanizer had been put in debt when several women invaded his music studio and destroyed his equipment. Now under pressure from his partner Tony Torpedo, his only option would be to quickly get married, inherit the family house, sell it off and pay off his debt. But he soon realized that things weren’t that simple as his mother sets him up with Sister Ajike (Segilola Ogidan) who gradually changed him from playboy to loverboy in a few days.
Efa Iwara, the second son who works in an advertising agency would have been the best bet to get married first as ‘A Naija Christmas’ opened with a scene of him getting ready to propose to the one he thought was the love of his life. He planned an extravagant proposal, and while captured on camera and live-streamed on social media, Linda Osifo outrightly rejected him, leaving him a trending topic across social media platforms with the new name #MuguRejectionGuy
That didn’t stop him. He continued to add pressure but soon got to realize he wants someone else entirely.
Abayomi Alvin, the last son appears to be more of the secretive one amongst the three children as he kept us all in the dark of who his woman was for almost half of the movie. The unveiling was a shock as he happens to be in love with Mrs. Bliss played by Mercy Johnson, the youngest member of his mother’s church group who happens to be a married woman.
They both realize their relationship was to be kept a secret until love happened to Abayomi Alvin and he demanded that Mercy Johnson leave her husband for him. That didn’t end well. She refused and he ended up being alone and heartbroken.
The story of ‘A Naija Christmas’
The Nigerian reality for both the parents and children is that those that are married are given more respect. That played out in this movie as Carol King tried at every opportunity she gets to rub it in Rachel Oniga’s face that her sons aren’t married.
Then the movie transitioned to showing that love is not just as simple as people think it is. Sometimes, it can be as complicated as not knowing who you want between the one that is obviously using you for their own selfish interest and the one who genuinely care about you.
Also, the movie was able to prove that even the worst of us all can find love and be made soft by it, and that played out in the story of Kunle Remi whose primary aim was to get married to Segilola Ogidan for the sole purpose of getting the family house but found himself unable to live without her.
Watch the official trailer below:
Our Rating
The acting in ‘A Naija Christmas’ is top-notch. We never expected anything less from such an amazing cast of talented actors and actresses. There was no room for error and the roles were very well interpreted. Even to the point where Efa Iwara was made to look like a nerd who blinked all the time. We give the acting a 10 out of 10.
The production is also a job well done. The sound, scene arrangements, and everything made the movie interesting to watch. We give the production a 10 also.
For the story, maybe because it is interesting and I didn’t want it to end, it seemed rushed to me. I wanted to know what happened to the relationships. Did Abayomi Alvin eventually let Mercy Johnson go? Did Tony Torpedo leave Ade Laoye for Efa Iwara without taking the ’emotional damage’ he demanded?
Questions like that needed to be answered which was not, so I’ll give the story an 8.
Overall, ‘A Naija Christmas’ gets a solid 9 out of 10.