Christmas with the Singhs

There were parts of this Hallmark holiday romance that were nice...like the sharing of some East Indian culture, but there were parts that were awkward like the say anything/Bollywood dance moment.

Jake and Asha meet in the ER during Christmas thanks to an icy sidewalk injury. A year later Jake asks Asha to marry him and goes to spend Christmas with both his parents and her parents the Singhs.

The spicy food, superstitions, lack of footwear in the house, sari's, etc were all fun to see as was the explanation of the small number of Christians in India. I thought the classing seemed forced because everyone seemed open and reasonable.

I really enjoyed Manoj Sood, who played Asha's father Samuel...for me he was the star of the show.

Colorful and quasi romantic. I wanted more from this film...including a few less stereotypes.

When I sat down to watch the 2024 movie "Christmas with the Singhs", I was under the impression that I was in for a Christmas movie. But it turns but that director Panta Mosleh delivered a comedy that was set against a Christmas backdrop. And while the movie certainly was watchable and enjoyable, it just wasn't exactly what I was expecting. But don't get me wrong, because the movie is not a bad movie.

Writers Patricia Isaac and Emily Ting put together a good and enjoyable script. Just don't expect to be in for a sappy Christmas movie, as I did, and you're good to go. "Christmas with the Singhs" is a feel-good kind of comedy that takes Western and Hindu culture and traditions and throw into a kettle and stir around for some funny moments and good laughs.

I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. And that is actually something I generally enjoy when I sit down and watch a movie. I will say that the acting performances in the movie were good.

This movie provided me with genuine entertainment, and it is a movie well-worth watching if you enjoy comedies with more than just jokes below the belt.

My rating of director Panta Mosleh's 2024 movie "Christmas with the Singhs" lands on a six out of ten stars.

The movie started with a lot of promise. The leading couple, Anuja Joshi and Benjamin Hollingsworth were young adults starting out in their careers and had good chemistry, and the development of their relationship from their surprise meeting years after graduation, up to the proposal was reasonable, warm, and believable. I had high hopes for the movie at this point.

... and then we met the parents. With the possible exception of the bride-to-be's (Asha) mother, the parents were, to put it mildly, unpleasant. They were stereotypes of a suburban WASP couple and an immigrant couple. They expected absolute adherence to their own personal or cultural standards, and were unwilling to see the other side in any way. They were utterly competitive in their quests to win some kind of Christmas decoration prize. They portrayed the worst of inlaw characterizations.

This has been done before, with sensitivity and humor. But in this movie, it came off as bullying and was so unpleasant to watch that this was one of the few Hallmark movies that I simply turned off without watching to completion.

One last thing, Why was the movie called "Christmas with the Singhs"? It could have just as easily be called, "Christmas with the O'Briens".

This movie is a total cliche, It is a rehash of all the movies where an engaged couple spends Christmas for the first time with their families bringing both of them together. Samuel Singh is the prototype of the difficult father-in-law. His wife tries to dull the rough edges but plays it a little too close to the cultural stereotype of an Indian wife. Jake's dad is a little difficult, but compared to Samuel he is a pussycat. His mom, although a competitive Christmas decorator is the most diplomatic of the group. Given all this, the story is mostly predictable right down to the last scene.

An interesting exception culturally is that the Singh family are generational Christians even before leaving India. So the climax is especially disappointing in a face off which leave's Samuel looking anything like the best of Christianity. Fortunately, forgiveness is one of the more important aspects of Christians since they all know how much they have been forgiven.

The acting isn't bad and really neither is the story other than being so derivative. I failed to find all of the conflict funny, so I will not want to watch this again.

This film uses the joining of two families over Christmas to rerun the Meet the Parents theme, while showcasing Indian celebrations of the holiday.

Ultimately dry and lifeless, this effort is not worth your time. I felt uncomfortable for our leads for having such annoying families who spoke in long, robotic and way-too-complete complete sentences.

One bright side, our leads. They could have carried the movie alone, had they not been busy playing caricatures of "regular white guy" and "modern Indian woman."

Change the channel on the Singhs.

Measuring Christmas magic: no magic, but good representation of Indian culture.

Cast Kudos: I'd like to see Anuja Joshi given another lead role, but with less responsibility than representing the entirety of her culture.

Alternative titles: Christmas engagement clash; Blending Culture Christmas.