If you’ve already put up your tree, are wearing your Chrissie hat and singing Jingle Bells, this will be a movie for you!
Christmas Karma is the musical movie equivalent of a Christmas pudding filled with custard and chocolate and covered in 3 inches of sweetened cream. Plus sprinkles.
This year’s reworking of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a decidedly British musical comedy, with an Indian flavour.
Kunal Nayyar plays Eshaan Sood, as a Scrooge who lives alone, has more money than he needs and no friends or family. He is played out to the nth degree as the blackhearted villain, firing all his staff the day before Christmas because they had the audacity to have a Christmas celebration.
We do see his backstory, how he started out living in abject poverty having had to flee Uganda as a child and being determined then to become someone with money and status. This was a part of history I had not known about – the British had brought Indian workers to Uganda to build railways, and then in 1972 when Idi Amin came to power he deported them all, giving them 90 days to leave the country. As Eshaan grows up his entire focus is on making money and gaining status, which causes him to lose the love of his life, Bea. This twists him so that money is his only love. He grows more bitter, hating refugees and poor people, because it is their fault they are in their situation and he is not going to help anyone.
The ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future are hilariously unexpected – Christmas Present is Billy Porter, Christmas Past is Eva Longoria and Christmas Future is Boy George. Eva Longoria’s Day of the Dead make-up and costume are spectacular.
The songs are extremely cheesy, and sometimes the sync is out unfortunately. I can’t say that any of the songs had me singing along or remembering them afterwards. The film is also hampered by a lack of subtlety and the need to hammer as much emotion, plus a song, into everything. Mr Sood’s hatred of refugees, though he was a refugee himself, and then his backstory could have been so much more powerful with a bit less of everything. With a bit of toning down, Christmas Karma would have been brilliant, but is still a bit of fun for the silly season.
Christmas Karma’s message remains the same as the original story – you get what you give, and it is never too late for redemption, especially at Christmas.
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