Karma aur Holi

Cast :	Sushmita Sen, Naomi Campbell, Randeep Hooda, Vikram Chatwal, Rati Agnihotri, Deepal Shaw, Suchitra Krishnamurthy
Director :	Manish Gupta, Alumni of NY Film Academy
Producer :	David Roma, Drena De Niro, Prashant Shah
Genre :	Family
Release Date :	6-3-2009

SOMETIMES, you ruin products with customising things for the local audience. KARMA Aur Holi is one such product. The dubbing – to Hindi – is so lacklustre and inane that sitting through the length of the movie is a pure test of your patience.

The film unfurls when a group of characters meet at Sushmita Sen and Randeep Hooda’s home for Holi. There’s of course Sushmita and Randeep, the married couple. Sushmita is unhappy about their not having children, while Randeep is secretly trying to a handle a financial crisis in his company with his business partner (Debbie Mazor).

Sushmita’s suspicious sister (Rati Agnihotri), who is married to Suresh Oberoi, is over-protective of her teenaged son. He finds himself ostracised by his classmates, thanks to his voyeuristic tendencies. Rati also does not favour anyone except Hindus and Indians.

There are Suchitra Krishnamoorti and her chauvinistic husband. And Suchitra’s outgoing sister Deepal Shaw, who wants to be an actress.

Then come the ‘star attractions’: Supermodel Naomi Campbell, as a struggling actress who discovers she is pregnant with her director-cum-boyfriend’s child.

And Drena De Niro (Hollywood actor Robert De Niro’s daughter), as a tarot card reader and Sushmita’s friend.

The Holi party they congregate at becomes the catalyst to revealing their secret desires and unfulfilled dreams.

Sushmita Sen dominates practically every frame in the movie and holds the movie together. A sight for sore eyes, her onscreen chemistry with Randeep is obvious.

As for the other actors, it is hard to critique a film that is completely dubbed, therefore missing any possible nuance that the actor might have evinced.

Speaking of which, not only is the dubbing jarring, the dialogues are also simply amateurish. You are caught between wanting to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it and letting your irritation get the better of you. Sample this. An African-American yells at his bodyguard, “Main item ke saath bathtub mein mazze le raha tha aur woh meri video utaar raha tha (I was having fun with the hot number in the bathtub and he was filming it all!).”

Then there’s the crudeness. Suresh Oberoi calling Rati a ‘monster’ and hatyaaran (murderess) for aborting her child.

Sushmita asks a businessman to get out of her house because his girl is a vaishya (prostitute).

Deepal Shaw seems to be attached to a camera throughout, and the only person she films is 17-year old voyeur Vikram.

Indifferent, sloppy editing, with no real rhythm, scenes just jumping from one scene to another and no plotline to speak of – no wonder Sushmita Sen backed out of promoting this film.

To give the film its due, the English version might perhaps not be so bad. You might want to check it out – if you like conversation-driven films and love Sushmita Sen.

Meanwhile, the Hindi version should have stayed safely in the can.