Namaste Wahala Review | A Unique Concept Poorly Executed

You have no idea how excited I was to see this mashup of the most dramatic “woods”: Nollywood and Bollywood. It’s genius! Why hadn’t anyone come up with this idea earlier? But — if I’m going to be honest about the outcome of this genius fusion, the best part about it is the fact that it’s a pioneer in the concept Bollywood-Nollywood fusion. The actual execution of this concept was unfortunately quite amateur. Although I must also point out that this was the directorial debut of Hamisha Daryani Ahuja so, you know, your first time is not going to be your best time.

Namaste Wahala is a rom-com about a Nigerian woman and an Indian man who fall in love and must overcome the cultural and familial barriers of their relationship.

If you haven’t watched the film yet, I won’t spoil anything for you here. I’ll just give you my general thoughts: It was bad. Super corny, odd pacing, poor acting, ill-suited camera angles, strange audio incongruencies, etc. I think the best way to summarize it is that I could see the underlying framework of this movie while it claimed to be a finished product. 

Rating: 2/10

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Let’s start off with the best part of this film. 

Cultural Fusion

The title of this movie itself is a Bollywood-Nollywood fusion of “Namaste” meaning “Hello” in Hindi and “Wahala” meaning “Trouble” in Yoruba. Hence, “Namaste Wahala” = “Hello Trouble”. 

Another aspect of the fusion that I enjoyed was the original song for the movie. It really blended Indian and Nigerian musical styles nicely and to this day I still remember the melody of the title. 

So, that’s probably my biggest praise for the movie.

The thing is — if the concept of this movie wasn’t so novel, I guarantee you that the reception would not be as positive as it is. 

Which brings me to my critiques of the film.

7 Main Issues With Namaste Wahala

1. It Felt Unfinished

I could see the actors trying to remember their lines. I could see them preparing for their spit take. I could see them counting in for their cues to do their dance number. I could see them mentally preparing to make their next move and then proceeding to do the move overdramatically. It was glaringly fake and overdramatized to the point where it became embarrassingly cringey rather than humorously campy. 

2. Lack of Story Fluidity

On top of that, the flow of the story from scene to scene was not very fluid and the pacing was just strange. 

In one scene, the main characters are staring into each other’s eyes for 5 minutes straight at a business conference and then the next scene, they’re doing a musical number on the beach. 

I get the spontaneous music numbers of Bollywood but there’s gotta be some sort of transition into this musical world rather than a jump-cut. It just didn’t flow. That’s really it. 

And my goodness — the musical scenes were so cringey and out of place. It felt like a random music video in the middle of an already messy story structure.

It takes you out of the moment becasue your mind is making up transitions for you since the movie failed to do so. 

3. Baseless Relationship

I was not invested in Raj and Didi’s relationship AT ALL. They didn’t give us any insight into why they loved or cared for each other. It was just baseless love at first sight. They both thought they were cute, that’s why they wanted to get married. 

Then, of course, their parents are rude and prejudiced for no reason.

Like, before you have me wanting to fight for the unity of this relationship, give me a reason to fight! Give me substance! Because I’m not going to fight for a relationship simply because they look cute together. Simply because an Indian man and a Nigerian woman together is a novel concept.

Like no!

Where is the love? Where is the emotional connection?

I had no emotional investment in seeing their love overcome the obstacles presented.

4. Weak Obstacles

Speaking of cultural obstacles, the only obstacle that the parents really focused on was, “The Nigerian woman can’t cook Indian food.”

…What??

How about religious differences? How about how they’ll raise their children culturally? How about those people on the street who’ll give them the side-eye because they’re not used to seeing that racial/ethnic combination of couple? 

How about all of the other very real obstacles that come with interracial, intercultural romantic relationships? 

I was really hoping to see a little more depth into the heart of both cultures and seeing them unify over their similarities but they barely even scratched the surface. Rather, they just talked about how the food is different. Like seriously? There’s a lot more to it than just that.

So, yeah, I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to see more of how those two worlds culturally overlap in a deeper way. 

5. Unnecessary Plot Lines

The plot had no focus. The whole plot point of fighting for the victimized woman at the law firm was so random and unnecessary. That time could’ve gone more towards the more complex issues of intercultural dating rather than try to squeeze in a vague, unrelated women’s issue. That’s a different movie.

It seemed like a whole separate story that had nothing to do with the core theme of meshing Bollywood and Nollywood culture. 

It was a stretch. I wish the subplot that ran alongside the Indian-Nigerian romance could’ve given us more insight into who both people are as individuals and a couple rather than this random addition of a righteous job or something. 

I get it, rom-coms focus on work, family, and romance, but please make it make sense. Don’t randomly pull ideas out of a hat and then try to mush them together.

6. Amateur Crew

It was evident that there was a mixture of experience among the cast and crew. Some people, you could tell that this movie was probably their acting debut and other faces I recognized from other Nollywood movies. Unfortunately, though, the level of amateur really weighed down the whole production.

Even the good actors weren’t elevated because the camera angles and editing did them no justice. It made everything feel awkward and strange even when the actors themselves were doing their best.

7. Shallow Characters

Moving away from the actors and focusing on the characters, there was no depth behind any of them, and their motives were so cryptic to me. The strength behind their hatred for the other culture held no weight. The parents hated the other culture like their ancestors had a history of violence and war which I don’t think they do… I could be wrong.

Cultural hesitancy might make sense but not hatred like what was displayed. Their reactions held no substance so it really just felt like they were just rude and salty people for no valid reason. 

In Conclusion…

Namaste Wahala was not good and it cracked me up for all the wrong reasons. Some parts were so atrocious that I couldn’t believe they made it to the final cut. It was painful watching it but I hope it opens doors and ideas for more Bollywood-Nollywood mash-ups. I think it’s a good starting point to at least put the idea out there.

But when it comes to Namaste Wahala… because of the novel concept and the decent theme song, I’ll generously give it a –

Rating: 2/10

What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments below!

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Peace, love, and lots of popcorn,

IMO