Some movies will make you laugh totally, and some that makes you laugh at first suddenly make you uncomfortable because you eventually realize it's touching some part of you or someone close that you never really noticed before and Oversabi Aunty is one of those movies for me.
The Nigerian box office movie directed and starring Toyin Abraham, introduces us to Toun, a church usher whose passion for correcting everybody else's behaviour has almost become a full-time job. She is quick to notice what is wrong with other people's children, relationships and their choices, but she somehow struggle to notice what is happening inside her own home and that is where the movie becomes more than just comedy.
Toun is married to Chidi, played by Mike Ezuruonye, and together they have four children. While Toun is busy presenting herself as the moral corrector in her community, her own children are quietly dealing with emotional neglect, confusion and problems that she failed to properly see.
Her eldest daughter, Seyi, played by Efe Irele is preparing for her wedding introduction, and what was supposed be a beautiful celebration gradually became the stage where many of the family's hidden problems begin to surface. This is where I started seeing the real message behind the title.
Being “oversabi” isn't simply about being someone who talks too much or interferes in other people's business alone. Sometimes, it is about using other people's problems to avoid confronting your own.
Toun knows everybody's business but she doesn't know her own children and the irony becomes painful when the same behaviours she condemns in other people's children begin appearing in her own household.
Chuka, Toun's son played by Enioluwa Adeoluwa, is particularly important to this part of the story. His anger and emotional struggles aren't simply random bad behaviour. They are connected to a child who has spent too much time feeling unseen and unheard. This was one of the parts of the movie that stayed with me because children don't always become what parents teach them but sometimes, they become what parents repeatedly show them. Even Seyi begins reflecting some of the behaviours she dislikes in her mother, which shows how easily children can absorb what they grow up around.
Then the wedding chaos started. The Yoruba and Igbo sides of the family, church expectations, parental rivalry and cultural differences all collide, creating some of the funniest but also most uncomfortable moments in the movie. Eventually, Toun is forced to confront the consequences of being so busy correcting everybody else while she neglected the people closest to her.
Although Toyin Abraham's performance is deliberately exaggerated, but that actually works for the character. Toun is annoying, funny, frustrating and, eventually, a surprisingly human.
Mike Ezuruonye also deserves credit for bringing some balance to the chaos. His portrayal of Chidi feels like that husband who has spent years trying to manage a situation without completely losing his patience but for me, the strongest part of Oversabi Aunty isn't the comedy but the uncomfortable question underneath it that "what if the person who is always correcting everyone else is actually avoiding something within themselves?"
The movie isn't a perfect one. Some scenes were unnecessarily long, some dialogue became repetitive, and certain subplots could have been removed without affecting the main story like the car stop scene but despite those flaws, I think the movie succeeds in doing something important which is making us laugh at a familiar Nigerian character before quietly asking us to examine ourselves.
Perhaps the biggest lesson from Oversabi Aunty I'll take on is that before you correct everybody else's children, make sure you haven't stopped listening to your own. Remove the booger in your eye before calling out on another person's.
I'll be dropping my 🖊️ here on the movie review
Thanks for reading through 🤗
All images are for the movie
Rating: 87/100
