Why “Buka Girl” Did Not Need A Sequel

Written by Bridget Imaseun and produced by Isoken Joy Holmes, “Buka girl” streams on Joyflix Tv on Youtube. Ekenne (Chioma Okafor), our “Buka Girl” is a poor, hardworking young woman who makes a living off selling food on a stand by the roadside as some sort of a local restaurant popularly known as a Buka, hence the name “Buka Girl”. The storyline follows the life of this young striving chef as she manages her business, falls in love and tries to find the balance between these two without losing herself and her worth.

Her troubles and woes intensify when she crosses paths with an arrogant and wicked man (John Elkanem starring as Williams) who has built walls all around him impossible to be broken down. On the first encounter, you would think Williams was incapable of love and his accumulated vendetta against the protagonist does not make it any easier to love his character.

As much as the one and half hours of the first part of “Buka Girl” might have been intriguing to an extent, a sequel was wishy-washy. This is so because the chemistry between the Ekenne and Williams was very faint so to say. They rarely were able to embody their character together as a couple although on a personal level, they succeeded on embodying their characters. Romantic scenes felt unaffectionate, and unfortunately the storyline expected there to be too much friction between the duo even after falling in love and being in the relationship so much that it felt too difficult to sustain their relationship.

Another reason the production team could have avoided the sequel was because there was no strong storyline to hold the sequel. I believe the idea of the sequel was to hinge mainly on William’s backstory and issues that led to his inability to love, trust and treat Ekenne right. However, the story coined for his inability to treat people right was not justifiable. It could barely hold the movie going hence a much stronger reason could have done the sequel much better.

In addition, some of the actors right from “Buka Girl 1” acted flatly and were unable to live up to their characters rendering their scenes a bit unmoving.  A better casting could have done the trick and would have positioned this sequel better in the industry.

The lows of the follow on does not entirely render it a flop. The one element that keeps the audience going is the humour of the Buka girl herself. Her ability to stand up for herself as well and the urgency with which she forges to move her career ahead, achieve her dreams and still fight for her love. These are attributes young girls in this day can imitate and be encouraged to have it all.

A trait of William’s that could actually hold together the movie was his character’s ability to and love for the success of his woman – one thing that almost unmade their love story. Audiences got a chance to see the once “rough edged” Ekenne being refined in many ways and the denouement of the movie did justice to that. Her growth from being the road side buka girl to becoming the high earned restaurant owner was surreal and sweet to see.

For those of you who have seen both predecessor and sequel, what are your thoughts on the topic of whether a sequel indeed was needed and if so, was justice done to it or not?