An Indian Christmas

What happens when an American sportswriter falls in love with an Indian ER nurse attendant? They celebrate Christmas with an Indian touch

Finally a Christmas movie in an Indian family setting.

Asha Singh, an ER nurse attendant, meets her classmate, Jake O’Brien, on Christmas day and they begin to date. He proposes on the eve of their first anniversary, obviously leading to a meet-the-parents situation over the holidays.

Anuja Joshi and Benjamin Hollingsworth in 'Christmas At The Singhs' (Courtesy: Hallmark Channel)

What’s baffling are the blatant cultural inaccuracies in the movie. To begin with, the title itself is problematic: Christmas At The Singhs.

Now… Asha’s father, Samuel, is Christian and her mother, Nirmala, is a Hindu. For the uninitiated, Singh is a Hindu or Sikh surname. “Mr Samuel” cannot be a Singh, even if his future son-in-law cleverly never addresses him by his surname. So, title issue right there.

Then there are a handful of Indian rituals that have been terribly portrayed. No Indian family has ever welcomed a guest with a lit matchstick; it’s an aarti on a decorated plate with a lit lamp, betel leaf, betel nut, kumkum, turmeric and something sweet like barfi. Neither do they hand their guests a set of lemons and chillies. Those are hung on the main door of a house or on a car bumper to ward off evil. And that nazar utarna gesture that Rekha aunty unleashes on the soon-to-be-weds is absolute sacrilege!

What’s equally appalling is that Samuel, played by an Indian actor, does not know how to appropriately hold a sitar. Could the team not YouTube it?

The Singhs (Courtesy: Hallmark Channel)

Despite such glaring cultural horrors that one may write off as creative or comedic license, Christmas At The Singhs is one of the better holiday films. The script is engaging and the lead actors, Anuja Joshi and Benjamin Hollingsworth, are good performers. It’s predictable in some parts, like Samuel challenging Josh to eat spicy Indian food, but that’s a cultural clash that cannot be left unexplored. Some moments needed a little more exploration and felt hurried.

An Indian scenario has so much more to offer in terms of storytelling. Samuel plays the possessive father, but none of the other family elders have any quirks. Rekha aunty was representative of traditional idiosyncrasies, and if the writers had explored a quirkier character and woven her into the story, the jokes would have written themselves. The ‘evil’ aunt is a stereotype in Indian culture and folk lore, you know.

In any case, this light-hearted Hallmark original is a comfortable one-time watch. Because finally we see a Christmas movie in an Indian setting.

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