If you were hoping for festive cheer this year, Christmas Karma is determined to snatch it from you.
The BBC’s latest cinematic misadventure—a Bollywood-inspired musical take on Dickens’s A Christmas Carol—hits modern-day London with all the subtlety of a foghorn.
Danny Dyer belts out songs as a cabbie, Hugh Bonneville haunts as Jacob Marley, and Boy George stumbles through as the Ghost of Christmas Future.
In short, it’s a film that empties cinemas faster than you can say “Bah humbug.”
A Second Viewing Feels Like Punishment
I braved the film not once, but twice. The first time was naive optimism; maybe, just maybe, Gurinder Chadha’s direction would turn out charming, a la Bend It Like Beckham.
The second time, seated in an Odeon in Hereford, it felt like willingly signing up for a root canal with no anaesthetic.
By the end, of seven audience members, only three remained.
It’s rare to see a cinema self-thinning so quickly without natural disaster intervention.
Eshaan Sood and the Modern Scrooge
In this adaptation, Ebenezer Scrooge becomes Eshaan Sood, a scowling, hard-hearted financial services tycoon.
Kunal Nayaar, best known as Raj from The Big Bang Theory, plays him with a cold efficiency.
Mr Sood treats employees, neighbors, and pretty much anyone he encounters like dirt.
The setup is promising: Dickens’s timeless tale translated into modern Anglo-Indian London, yet somewhere along the way, charm and logic were lost.
Critics Didn’t Hold Back
The backlash was immediate. Reviews ranged from my own one-star despair to a Telegraph critic suggesting it was “the worst thing to happen to Christmas since King Herod,” while The Guardian dismissed it as “leaden, unconvincingly acted, and about as welcome as a dead rat in the eggnog.”
Chadha’s experiment with musical Dickens might have seemed clever on paper, but on screen, it teeters somewhere between cringe and chaos.
Flashbacks to Africa Get Lost in Translation
Chadha tries to weave personal history into the story: Sood’s childhood in Uganda and abrupt relocation to Britain after Idi Amin’s expulsion is presented via flashbacks.
Eva Longoria plays the Ghost of Christmas Past, inexplicably Mexican and from the Day of the Dead.
While these glimpses could have added depth, they feel disconnected, like stray sparks from a fireworks display that never quite light up the sky.
Songs, Scripts, and Surprising Misfires
From the outset, the film’s musical numbers signal trouble.
Danny Dyer’s cabbie bursts into the title song with lyrics that aspire to poetry but achieve something closer to a tongue twister.
Later, one office scene descends into rap commentary about Sood’s face, leaving the audience unsure whether to laugh or cry.
And as for Boy George’s ghostly turn, the look of mild confusion on his face perfectly mirrors the audience’s reaction.
Ghosts, CGI, and Costumes from a Nightmare
The supernatural cast is as bewildering as the songs.
Bonneville’s Marley is rendered in weird CGI, Longoria floats in Day of the Dead garb, and Billy Porter’s Ghost of Christmas Present seems ripped straight from a fever dream.
Even the plot points—Sood’s conversion to generosity, the salvation of Tim Cratchit, and the romantic subplot—are tripped up by lavish, illogical production choices.
Not to mention the Cratchit family lives in a multi-million-pound Notting Hill house that has all the realism of a snow globe.
A Festive Fiasco that Will Be Forgotten
Released mid-November, Christmas Karma is destined for obscurity by the real holiday season.
Its mistakes—from musical misfires to cultural missteps and logistical absurdities—make it memorable only for all the wrong reasons.
Like 1964’s Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, it deserves a place in the hall of shame as one of the worst Christmas films ever.
Verdict
If you want a movie that’s lively, heartwarming, or even coherent, look elsewhere.
Christmas Karma delivers spectacle, sure, but it’s the kind that makes you wish someone had thrown a ghostly warning before you bought your ticket. One star. End of story.
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