Upcoming star-studded festive film Christmas Karma has ended on the naughty list after the first reviews called it “Yuletide nausea-inducing”.
The Christmas musical from the director of Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice, Gurinder Chadha, has not convinced critics ahead of today’s release.
Yet another present-day take on Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, Chadha’s film turns Ebenezer Scrooge into grouchy businessman Eshaan Sood, played The Big Bang Theory star Kunal Nayyar.
A Christmas hater, Mr Sood is visited by the canonical three ghosts — portrayed by Eva Longoria, Billy Porter and Boy George, respectively – who plead with him to change his spiteful ways.
Also starring are Hugh Bonneville as Sood’s business partner Jacob Marley, Danny Dyer as a chatty cab driver with a penchant for entertaining passengers with questionable songs, and Leo Suter as Bob Cratchit.
True Brit Entertainment
While we all know how this one ends, Chadha’s movie throws in an original backstory for Sood, looking back on a lost love and a traumatic history of immigrating to the UK as a kid.
Unfortunately, critics have not been impressed by this new adaptation, with The Daily Telegraph deeming the movie “the worst since Cats” and giving it zero stars. Here are some more review excerpts from what could be this Christmas’s biggest cinema flop, despite the good intentions.
“It’s only November and this film has given me an overload of Yuletide nausea.
“Christmas Karma is a film made with the best intentions by some lovely human beings, but which keeps finding new and spine-twistingly embarrassing ways to fall on its face.”
True Brit Entertainment
“Gurinder Chadha’s Dickens do-over is a typically original perspective on a canonical classic, if let down by its stretched production values and unlikable songs. But it aims only to be a crowd-pleaser, and may yet become one.
“The Scrooge stuff is fine, and Christmas Karma works best when exploring Mr Sood’s Indian heritage. It’s the hokey, cluttered musical that gets in the way – and I think Nayyar is a tad too young to portray the cantankerous lead.”
Christmas Karma is in cinemas now.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).