FilmOne Entertainment, Empire Entertainment present Nancy Isime (Kambili Maduka), Mawuli Gavor (John), Jide Kene Achufusi (Chidi), Uzor Arukwe (Bankole), Sharon Ooja (Linda), Elvina Ibru (Cynthia), Venita Akpofure (Biodun), Toyin Abraham (Jessica). Executive Producers, Moses Babatope, Kene Okwuosa, Craig Shurn, Kefei Wang, Debbie McCrum; Producer, Mimi Bartels, Kayode Kasum; Co-producer Ozioma Ogbaji; Asso-producer Matilda Ogunleye; Director Kayode Kasum; Screenplay Ozioma Ogbaji. © 2020
Prologue: Kambili Maduka (Nancy Isimi), a twenty-nine-year-old habitual tardy and latecomer to work, is suspended for two weeks without pay. Upon her birthday, her boyfriend and intended husband breaks with her at dinner in a restaurant. She isn’t focused, responsible, prudent, and not wife material, he says. Even as she cries to him for a chance to change, he walks off the table.
Dialogue: Kambili has a blossom male young friend, Chidi (Jide Kene Achufusi), who works together in the same office. He is her only friend; she cries on his shoulder when things aren’t going well with her. Now that the job suspends her, she’s worried about her rent, and John left her too, makes her “life miserable,” she cries to Chidi. “And he broke up with you on your birthday… look on the bright side, Kambili,” consoles Chidi.
“Kambili, “Bright side, what dirty bright side?”
Chidi, “What do you want me to say?”
Kambili, “So you can’t fight for me? You’re my friend. You can’t ask me for his address, so you can go and beat him up? Organize area, boys. Beat him, put him in the hospital.”
Chidi, “You don’t mean that.”
Kambili, her lips pouted, “No! I just need him back. Chidi, I still love him…I must get him back. I will prove to him that I can be many shades…and plenty yards of wife material, but I will get him back.”
Kambili is evicted from her apartment and goes home to her mother. She thinks to bunk there for a minute but finds out her mother, Cynthia (Elvina Ibru) has a boyfriend, Bankole (Uzor Arukwe), whom she’s engaged to marry. She couldn’t stay even as she pretends to accept her mother having a husband. She knocks at address 14 of Chidi’s apartment. He heaves when he learns Kambili bunked at her mother’s house as he had kept calling all over for her overnight. Now Chidi’s apartment is the only available space she can use for the time being. “I beg my guy am homeless,” she pleads with Chidi, which he accepts her stay.
But Chidi, in a privileged conversation, asks Kambili why she’s struggling so hard to be accepted by John. At that moment, she realizes that she must look after her interest first. Now she has the answer to her bewilderment. “I love art. I love the business part. You know now, as an Igbo girl.” Kambili and Chidi laugh over the statement. “Kambili, that right there is the reason you are doing all this. Not John.”
Chidi has a girlfriend, Linda (Sharon Ooja). She detests the cordial relationship between her boyfriend and Kambili. She wouldn’t want Chidi spending so much time with a woman who has lost a job and a boyfriend because of sloppiness. Hanging around, Chidi spells threat for her. Besides Linda, Kambili has a circle of friends, like Chidi. Chidi scolds her for buying things on impulse. She has a mother who spurs her to change her life for the better, and she asks, “how do you expect to keep a man when you live in a room like this?” The mother cleans her apartment and clarifies what men want in a woman.
Kambili, with the help of her friend, Biodun (Venita Akpofure), sells all her clothes and raises money to open an art gallery. At the opening, John shows up, and all of a sudden, he’s in love with Kambili. “I knew you had such a talent in you…art curator, you? I mean, who would have thought, you of all people could put something like this together…I’m actually impressed.” The next thing is to reconcile with Kambili, which she readily accepts.
Epilogue: Now that Kambili breaks new ground in her life and becoming successful, John comes back to her, but with the same old chip on his shoulder. Like Giveon’s song, Breakheart Anniversary. Just like the day I met you/The day I thought forever/Said that you love me/But that will last for never/Like when you walked out of my life/Why you walked out of my life?… He reluctantly gives his mother’s wedding ring over to Kambili as in engagement. Actually, he is forced to do so. Upon a night out on the town, and in his car, the relationship ends over a hamburger issue.
Kambili, “This is the best burger I’ve had.”
John, “What’s wrong with you?”
“What?”
“You don’t think all this, uh, junk food you are eating is going to make you fat before the wedding?”
“You have a problem with what I’m eating?”
“You’ve been eating a ton of junk food lately…If you gonna be marrying me, I want you to be perfect on that day.”
“I’m size ten… I’m not fat.”
“I’m pretty sure you gonna get there.”
“What do you mean, John? I’ve been size ten all my life no matter what I eat…you know this.”
“I cannot have you fat standing by me.”
“First, you said I was irresponsible, not focused, sloppy, and not a marrying type. (mouthful of burger) I worked hard on myself. And now it’s about my size. When will I ever be good for you?”
“I’m just asking for you to be better.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“Kambili, where are you gonna find a guy like me?”
Kambili laughs whimsically. “ You are arrogant, disrespectful, uncouth, and so ungrateful.”
Thus ends the romantic relationship and the engagement between John. She whisks John’s mother’s ring off her finger, puts it in his palm, and steps out of the car, leaving him agape.
Mawuli Gavor has catapulted to a Nollywood-grade A list since Devil In The Detail (2014). His performance in Just In Time (2021) is a justification for his acting prowess. In Kambili, his height and character help him look down on his fellow actors, as his part makes him insolent and proud boyfriend of Kambili. “What are you doing with those people?” He asks referring to Chidi, Biodun, and all other friends as low class.
Nancy Isimi’s character befits her. From her appearance in Hex (2015), Isimi has appeared in twenty-nine films. She’s right on the road to take the baton from Omotola Jalade. Her role in Kambili portrays a lazy, spoilt brat who keeps her living quarters like a hurricane passes through; she wears her shoes in a taxi on her way to work. Her life begins to change when her mother confesses to her about marrying a younger man. Eventually, the circle of friends helps her to organize her life.
The film, Kambili: The Whole 30 Yards has a soccer metaphor as a title. The figure of speech indicates Kambili’s struggled through the whole 30 yards to score a goal at John’s heart. The ball is in her court alright, but the person for whom she has so struggle is “unbearable, arrogant, disrespectful, and uncouth.” Her life turns around 360 degrees and gains self-pride, and her friends once again cherish her company.
The writer, Ozioma Ogbaji, creates a subtle love angle in the story. Chidi, who has been there for Kambili, over time grows love for her. Kambili also couldn’t help but comment on her hat color-matching with Chidi’s blue jacket color at her gallery opening. They already seem to think alike, and that spells intuitively falling in love. John offends Chidi at the gallery opening when he keeps calling him Chima. Gosh, Chidi detested that. At home with Linda, he’s infuriated because she doesn’t help him cut the carrots. “I’m not your wife!” “Am I your husband?” He snaps back. “Why are you yelling at me? Really something is upsetting you, and it’s not me.” The last time we saw Linda.
When Kambili finally leaves John, she comes knocking at Chidi’s door to find out Linda has left him. Maybe with Chidi, she finally scores the 30 yards. An excellent film to spend Sunday evening watching.