Drifting “Postcards,” From The Makers Of “Namaste Wahala”

“Postcards” is a six-episode series which premiered May 3 on Netflix. It follows the lives of several characters based in Nigeria and India. Let’s look at the lives of some of these characters.

Aunty Bunmi (Sola Sobowale) is a party-loving Lagos socialite and businesswoman. An urgent medical trip takes her to India for the treatment and possible surgery of her fibroids. Yemi (Tobi Bakre) is Aunty Bunmi’s only child, although the viewer cannot easily make this connection early on. He is a dancer who gets selected to take part in a production in India. As far as japa tales go, travelling to India to take part in a dance production as an extra is a new one.

Zainab (Rahama Sadau) lives in India with her Indian husband, Siddharth Kapoor (Rajneesh Duggal), the surgeon treating Aunty Bunmi. Aunty Bunmi and Kapoor bond over the fact that the latter has a Nigerian wife, although his wife’s name or where in Nigeria she is from never comes up until the last episode.

This would not be strange were Aunty Bunmi was not an ultra outgoing nosy aunty. This contrived twist was so that, when they, eventually, all meet in the last episode, the viewer would be shocked. What are the odds that these Nigerians living in the same city do not know or know about each other?

Part of Zainab’s story is that she does not want kids, which was the mutual agreement with her husband except that he has now changed his mind.

Olumide (RMD) is a rich Nigerian businessperson based in India and he’s Aunty Bunmi’s brother. He is the loner guy who has not recovered from losing his Indian love because her family did not approve their inter-racial relationship. He is now almost anti-people. The only people he allows close are his accountant, Kabir (Rio Kapadia-the actor died in September 2023), his PA/Man Friday, Aryan (Aman Maheshwari) and his cook, Annu Pradhan (Kalpana Ajaney).

If this summary sounds out of sorts and disjointed, that is because the six episodes of “Postcards” are also not always that coherent. Each episode appears to reside somewhat in a different planet. But, on their own, they could do okay. For sure, “Postcards” is colorful and there is an obvious attempt to sell Mumbai’s attractions. In addition, most of the actors do well in the interpretation of their roles.

However, as far as stories go, the ones told on “Postcards” are not as far-fetched as they’re disjointed. Granted, there are some High School Musical moments with the antics of some of Yemi’s cast mates that belong in a high school film. There’s the improbable story passing Yemi off as this uncivilized bush Johnny Just Come (JJC) to Mumbai. The same Yemi, son of Aunty Bunmi, the Lagos high society woman and Olumide’s nephew?

There’s also the temptation to include almost every Bollywood trope in a series that’s barely three hours in all.

Then there’s the issue of pace. For a six-episode series, by the third episode, the viewer is still none the wiser about how some events connect. Each episode tells an almost different tale focusing on selected subplots instead of adding more layers and complexity to key characters.

In Episode 3, Isioma (Nancy Isime), Zainab’s friend, visits her in India presumably from Nigeria. They do all sorts of girly things together enough to establish that their relationship goes way back. However, she disappears as suddenly as she arrived. At the critical moment Zainab’s marriage appeared to be threatened by a potential ‘other woman’. Isioma only encourages Zainab, via a telephone conversation, to go confront her husband about the suggestive message she’s seen on her husband’s phone.

Now Isioma, as the producers have spent some time selling her to us, is the kind of person who’d have marched with her friend straight to the hospital or even taken Zainab’s husband on by herself without telling her friend. But, poof, she just vanishes after one episode.

Just like “Namaste Wahala,” Ahuja’s “Postcards”, tries to do too much. Perhaps focusing on fewer plot lines would’ve given the series more depth. Olumide’s story can stand on its own as can Zainab and Siddharth, perhaps then the producers would’ve filled the gaps better.

There’s not enough background information on key characters. Zainab only exists as a housewife with too much time on her hands. In episode 4, while arguing with her husband about not wanting kids says: “Whose career would be on hold to take care of the baby?” Which makes me ask: What career? It’s never really established that Zainab has any career apart from making jollof for her husband to take to work. There’s a brief moment where she’s attempting to sketch a dress design.

Again, what about Zainab’s family in Nigeria or she doesn’t have any family back home? Zainab and her husband’s story could’ve done well with some complexity. For instance, Zainab’s decision not to have kids could have had something to do with, maybe, her having a child as a young girl, and said kid given away or something. Even when she says, “my fear of having kids stems from my own childhood,” no one tells us what informed that fear.

And there are other questions: What’s the idea with Aunty Bunmi’s manic response to the news about her fibroid surgery? Wasn’t it always clear that going to India was for treatment and possible surgery? There are other ways to show fear without behaving like a patient in a psych ward, which is a shame because Sola Sobowale delivers on her role even if we quibble over the absence of depth in certain storylines.

Still, almost all the actors give a good account of themselves, even if they are like paper tigers. There are subplots that don’t go anywhere: Kareena (Lekha Prajapati) and Zainab’s husband, Siddharth. Did he or didn’t he lead her on or was he just clueless?  And what’s it with Zainab going to confront her husband over Kareena and suddenly becoming lovey dovey despite seeing them coming out of the elevator all cozy? All of that is attributed to pregnancy hormones? Just like that?

I do realize I could keep going on with these questions. However, there’s a way to watch “Postcards,” which is lower to your expectations, and one way of achieving that is to watch each episode as a standalone because each of the episodes in the series seems to have a linear plot rather than a six-part narrative with various smaller stories all telling part of a larger narrative through an episodic plot.

With “Postcards,” do not attempt to make any unnecessary connections with each of the episodes or worry about any gaps.