Futuregate Pictures and Phoebean Films Production presents Waruche R. Opia (Mo), Gideon Okeke (Tobe), Beverly Naya (Jennifer), OC Ukeje (Dare), Desmond Elliot (Lanre), Bassey Ekpeyong (Tunde), Shaffey Bello (Anna), Oreka Godis (Tseju). Director, Seyi Babatope; Producers, Seyi Babatope, Moses Babatope; Screenplay by, Seyi Babatope, Ditche Enunwa, Temitope Akinbods; Director of Photography, Pindem Lot. © 2014
You got to be a conscious man when you fall in love
Just a conscious man when you fall in love.
When you fall in love with someone who doesn’t love you
They use you like a puppet on a string,
Look into yourself my friend, try to get wise
And be a conscious man when you fall in love-
The Jolly Brothers.
I wish I had followed the advice of the Jolly Brothers in these lyrics. I was young, handsome, and hustled on my parent, a few bucks every Saturday nights, went and hang out with the up and coming brunettes in the city. My platform shoes were four inches higher, and added to my afro hairdo made me a six-footer. Boy, the glow of life was shining on me, with all those beautiful girls who came along. I lost consciousness and ended with the wrong girls, and today I am a total regret. Mo (Waruche R. Opia), in her desperation, to find love, lasting one that could put a ring on it, and one that would last forty years like mom, and dad, has lost consciousness, and she’s in for regret.
Mo’s young, beautiful, affluent, and hardworking making enough money, but when her best friend call to let her know she wants her to be the wedding planner for her upcoming wedding, she blames her rotten stars. Of all the people in the world, Jennifer (Beverly Naya), isn’t supposed to get married before her.
Mo wakes up, goes downstairs, and her parents bombard her about marriage, and this inflamed her the more. Like one under pressure, and like her hormones running over, she gets the strange concept of searching for a partner over video or phone. Her two buddies, Tseju (Oreka Godis), and Tobe (Gideon Okeke) think their friend is going too far.
The first blind date turns out to be a disaster-a bum! Yet, Mo keeps trying to find this particular person to complete her life. Her friend Tseju, a night club ranger, advised her to go out more, and dress sexy even as provocative. She runs into men of different grains. There’s the engineer, who won’t stop talking, all about himself and brick and mortar-talking head; a scam who won’t stop calling for drinks at a bar, but had misplaced his credit card-scammer!; this one who speaks like an over-wined robot; and the one who can’t keep his slimy finger to himself. A dirty older man. Yuk!
The wedding date approaches, and the groom gets in town and visits with his future bride at, Mo’s wedding planning office. And Mo asks for the groomsman. Guess who walks in the door? Mo’s long time teenage boyfriend, Dare (OC Ukeje). Dare never stop being proud and arrogant, and a player, the same reason they had parted ways the first time. He and his parents had visited Mo’s parents the evening before over dinner, and the parents were hopeful, now that both Mo and Dare are mature, they might think of a lasting relationship-marriage. Mo’s mother is Anna (Shaffey Bello), the king-maker in Love is War, her face, is aglow for her daughter at last finding relationship in Dare. Not so fast, Mama!
Now that Mo has Dare in town, she’s missing both Tseju and Tobe’s frequent buddy-buddy meetings at the bar they usually meet. It’s either, “You’re refusing to answer my call,” and, “Oh, I’m sorry I missed your call,” “Oh, I’m busy with this wedding arrangements,” and so on. All along, she’s giving the best of her time to Dare or, she is hopping on a plane with him to South Africa, with a minute notice.
One thing Mo couldn’t listen to is her very heart. She has lost consciousness the moment she and Dare made up. Tseju tries to stop her and warn her about Dare, and she couldn’t stop to think. Tobe has been a friend of both Tseju and Mo for a long time. He shares their secret and sometimes steps in as the adult in the room when they face a dilemma in anything. Tobe has always been more than a buddy to Mo. He is dying for her, but can’t be brave enough to tell her, and Tseju wants him to say it himself. Then she visits Tobe.
Mo (flat), “Hi.”
Tobe (demure), “What’s up?”
Mo, “What’s up with you?”
Tobe, “I’m fine.”
Mo, “I can see that. You’ve not been returning my calls…what, too busy to call me back?”
Tobe, “There have been times when you couldn’t take or return my calls. I never made a fuss of it. The world doesn’t have to revolve around you; you know that?”
Mo, “What did I do? Clearly, you are angry with me, and I don’t know why. Yes, you are. Tobe, I know you.”
Tobe, “No, you don’t. You don’t, Mo.”
Mo, “What’s going on? You’re my best friend.”
Tobe, “Therein lies the problem, Mo. Tell me why you’re here?”
Mo, “I came here ‘cause I missed you. I wanted to see you, but apparently…why are you angry with me?”
Tobe, “I want you to stop seeing me…you keep taking me for granted, and I’m sick and tired of it already. I’m part of your life, and I’ve melted into the background already.”
Mo, “I don’t know about any of this “melting into the background.” But its because you’re part of my life. That’s what makes you unique. It’s not everyone I can do that. I have to go. Can we talk about this later?”
Tobe, “I’ll call you.”
She slaps a kiss on his cheeks and walks away.
Mo has Dare’s tuxedo and wants to drop it by him at his house, and Mo walks on Dare with another girl in his bedroom. There, Dare is in bed with a girl, dangling her underpants on his fingers, playboy style. The shock was overwhelming. Mo comes to herself right there that Dare has never left his womanizing habits. What bothers her more is when Dare tells her what he and the girl were doing in the room was only physical and nothing emotional.
When does love happen? It will happen like a brick hitting your face-unexpected; it will sneak up on you, crawling, like a snake in the dead of the night-dangerous. Or, it could be the one friend you‘ve shared everything with to the point of your feminine monthly circle, and when your hormones are amok. One thing, though, you’ve got to be conscious when love happens. Look beside you, my friend, the one who looks coyly at you; who tells your friends you are helpless and needs someone to take care of you. One who gets himself worked up, where you might be at night, in the town because he doesn’t want anything to hurt you; one who knows how beautiful you are, but never says it to your face; one who looks at your picture when you aren’t around, and he’s all the while smiling at your nose, your luscious lips, your soft cheeks, and your funny face.
When Mo, in tears, meet with Tobe and expresses to him her recent experience in Dare’s bedroom, and the expectations she has in a relationship:
Mo, “I want faithful love. I want true love, Tobe.”
Tobe grabs his chance and musters some strength:
Tobe, “Someone who truly cares about you. Who sees past your little faults. Someone who has the best for you, one who treats you like you are the only woman in the whole world. Someone who would give his heart, his body, and his soul, and loves you with everything that he has ever, ever had.”
The short love monologue does Mo in. Mo has found love in the only friend she has had for so long but never was conscious of. That’s when love happens; one with whom she shares her secrets; the one she at one time calls from the bottom of her heart, a perfect gentleman. She is at last conscious and sees true love in him, and when Tobe holds her head close to his face, smelling every each other’s breaths, then accepts his kiss. At last, Mo finds love. Tobe finds love too. Mo at Jennifer’s wedding is in Tobe’s arm as lovers. The next time around, we’ll catch them at the altar.