Gurinder Chadha has never been shy about mixing tones, cultures, or politics, and Christmas Karma may be her most full-throated collision yet: Dickens by way of Bollywood, pantomime, pop musical, and Brexit-era satire.
The result is uneven, bold and occasionally baffling. But if you’re willing to surrender to its maximalism, it’s far more enjoyable than the early dismissals suggest.
Chadha reframes A Christmas Carol around Mr Eshaan Sood (Kunal Nayyar), a contemporary Scrooge modelled on a now-forgotten generation of Indian conservatives in British politics.
She even told Parliament in 2024 that: “My Scrooge is an Indian Tory who hates refugees,” and the film takes that mission statement literally.
Sood begins the film railing against asylum seekers, dismissing the neighbours he deems beneath him, and snapping at his long-suffering assistant Bob Crachit (Leo Suter), before three ghosts drag him through a reckoning that stretches from colonial India to modern Britain.
The political sharpness won’t please everyone. Chadha folds racism, skinhead violence, border anxiety, British colonial fallout, and the Expulsion of Indians from Uganda into a festive musical. It’s deliberately provocative, but Dickens was political long before Chadha was.
The difference is simply that the stakes have globalised; industrial-era inequality has metastasised into worldwide wealth divides, and Christmas Karma wants that acknowledged. Whether the campy tone always supports the message is another question.
The film’s first half leans heavily into Bollywood spectacle: bright fabrics, sweeping dance lines, melodic refrains, and bursts of colour that lunge at the screen.
The score, featuring music from Gary Barlow, Shaznay Lewis and Nitin Sawhney, jumps between rap, pop balladry, and Bollywood orchestration, sometimes in the same scene.
Billy Porter, as the Ghost of Christmas Present, gets the best numbers by a mile; he treats each appearance as a mini showstopper.
Boy George, playing the Ghost of Christmas Future, is more of a presence than a singer; his scenes work because of his silhouette and theatrical stillness rather than vocal fireworks.
Eva Longoria, on the other hand, is one of the film’s odder choices: a Mexican Day of the Dead aesthetic intruding into a narrative otherwise grounded in British and Indian histories. Her section isn’t poorly executed, but it feels imported from a different film entirely.
As Sood, Nayyar is the film’s biggest gamble, and the place where Christmas Karma wobbles most. Known for broad sitcom comedy, he plays the role with a single gear in each phase. It’s unmodulated fury early on, unmodulated cheer after the transformation.
Chadha’s Scrooge is a caricature, deliberately, but Nayyar never finds the layers Bill Murray discovered in the 80s classic Scrooged. The parody of Rishi Sunak and other Indian Tories would have landed more sharply a few years ago. Today it feels like a political reference already fading from memory.
Importantly, during these polarised political times, Christmas Karma even finds compassion for the wealthy elites by seeing the “boys inside the men, the wound behind the wicked.”
Still, Leo Suter brings a grounded warmth to Bob Crachit, Pixie Lott charms as Mary, and Hugh Bonneville makes a crisply effective Marley.
The ensemble leans into Chadha’s tone with commitment, especially in the musical-set pieces, which are polished and ironically joyous even when the lyrics are diagnosing Britain’s political fractures.
Christmas Karma is not perfect. It’s not subtle. But it’s spirited, messy, musical, and entirely sincere about giving Dickens a cultural remix. Like any remix, you need to be open to the experiment. Those who are will find plenty to enjoy. Those who aren’t will likely wish Chadha had stuck to one genre instead of three.
Christmas Karma opens in cinemas nationally on 27 November 2025.
Website: https://rialtodistribution.com/film/christmas-karma/
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See the trailer below:
Film details:
Title: Christmas Karma
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Cast: Kunal Nayyar, Leo Suter, Charithra Chandran, Hugh Bonneville, Eva Longoria, Billy Porter, Boy George, Pixie Lott
Country of Origin: UK
Duration: 110 mins
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2 responses to “Film Review: Christmas Karma Is Messy, Musical & Surprisingly Moving”
Stunningly spot on review!
I am one of those who opened myself up to the experiment supported by my multicultural background and loved it.
Me too …really enjoyed it !