Kelani’s Maami hits town this Easter

This Easter will not be all about fluffy chickens on rice.
It will also involve movie.
Tunde Kelani’s Maami, in the spirit of the season, will resurrect the love for mothers as the long awaited movie is released for home viewing on DVD.
Maami, starring Funke Akindele, depicts the life of a helpless mother and her young son, who are desperately poor.
Gifted with a living heart, enterprising spirit and brave soul, she is the centre of her son’s world until he longs for the father he has never known, a man with a terrible secret.
Set over a two-day period, leading to the 2010 World Cup, Maami is an inspiring story of a poor, conscientious single parent’s struggles to raise her only child, Kashimawo, who, eventually, rises to international stardom in an English football club, Arsenal, and becomes a national hero in the wake of Nigeria’s preparation for the World Cup.
Adapted by Tunde Babalola from Femi Osofisan’s novel of the same title, the film is about love, perseverance and fate as it unfolds through Kashimawo’s reminiscences of his hardscrabble childhood in the southern Nigerian town, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Maami, shown in cinema in 2012, has enjoyed positive reviews and won many awards home and abroad for its quality, theme and plot.
Speaking on what she learned from her character, Maami, Funke Akindele said: “I think Maami is a great movie.
“I must say that I was really tasked, drilled and grilled to play the role by TK.
“I did my job as an actor, taking a part of me into believing that those things were really happening to me.
“I feel if it could be so real for me to interpret, it should be more real for my audience.
“It is great as well as humbling to see how much, how far a mother could go to save the life of her child, even in the face of death.”
Maami features alongside Funke Akindele, Wole Ojo, Tamilore Kuboye and Tolani Abatti, with cameo appearances by Olumide Bakare, Fatai Rolling Dollar, Yinka Davies, Kayode Balogun and Biodun Kupoluyi.