In the quest to find Nollywood movies for you that are different from the pack, I may just have uncovered one of the saddest movies of all time… and I do not mean that in a good way because I don’t know whether to be angry or to laugh at what I just watched.
When you do a quick Google search or you check Netflix for Ayamma, the synopsis reads, “An engaged prince dreams of a beautiful, singing maiden and is then shocked to come across a woman who looks and sounds exactly like her.”
Well, you see that synopsis, your best bet is to throw it out of the window because the real plot of the movie was scrambled and all over the place. In fact, it almost passes off as a movie without a plot like many 90s Nollywood movies.
Ayamma was touted as a “magical fusion cultural film that is clouded with music,” and while it did have some catchy traditional songs that will make you move your body, the lip-synching was very, very poor. Worse yet was the fact that the voices behind the songs were different each time and some were even laced with autotune. The very grating-to-the-ears kind of autotune.
The plot was all over the place, one minute characters are talking about how “the gods are angry” and the next, the same characters are praising the Almighty God. It was so bad, that even the Chief Priest did the same thing.
You have Prince Daraima (played by Wale Ojo, whose stellar acting was terribly overshadowed by the general blandnes of the movie,) dream about a woman, Ayamma (played by Adesua Etomi, who to be honest deserved better,) that sings with a voice that warms his heart. Then he goes on to ban music as his first act of mourning the late king before his coronation…
… then he runs mad (for some reason,) like King Saul in the Bible and the only way to exorcise the spirit of madness is to get him a musician, not a David, but a Virgin who will sing to him under a full moon.
Through all the nefarious unnecessary acts, lame attempts at plot twists, and once again a very, very bland movie, the one scene that struck me the most and should summarize how the movie truly is, was when the elders of the village were arguing about crowning a mad person as king. Let that sink in for a bit. Elders were saying “Yes, crown him like that even though he is mad.”
I find it hard to believe that Ayamma was made barely 4 years ago. It is not worth watching. However, if you enjoyed the mid 90s home video Nollywood movies that were set in villages with bland plots and production, then you can give Ayamma a go. If not, you are better off skipping.