Hot Mess Holiday

With a virtually all Indian cast and crew, every Indian trope and caricature is here. Set during Diwali (a floating holiday that occurs in late October or early November) we still see Christmas decorations. Really? And the weather is all wrong as well. It has much energy, and the two female leads are pretty (esp. Melanie, a total smoke show) but this project is mostly slapstick, with not much new in the genre. Hey, it's a fun romp, and a change from all the usual holiday films, but it's not going to be a breakout moment for our two leading ladies. Try again.

Melanie (Melanie Chandra) and Surina (Surina Jindal) are twentysomething westernized Indian best friends. Things are going wrong. It's Diwali. Melanie is coming off a bad relationship and gets pulled into a search for a $12 million blood diamond.

With the presence of Kal Penn, this reminds me of Harold & Kumar. Melanie is Harold and Surina is Kumar. They're good together. I love their chemistry. Everything else is a half step below. On a side note, I expected the ladies to be the writers or at least two of the writers. I'm not throwing shade at Sameer Gardezi who seems to be a prolific TV sitcom writer. I just want more of their voices in the words. All in all, I would like these two ladies to be a comedic team in either more of their own movies or even as side characters in other movies.

Hot Mess Holiday (2021) -

This film was like a cheap episode of a larger series and it was awful. I could tell that it wasn't going to be my thing within minutes. The characters were terrible and unappealing, they were send ups of themselves.

It was also kind of reverse racist towards the boss who was represented as an idiot about how to deal with people of colour.

It was unclear where the story was going, especially as a romantic lead make hadn't even been established by the time the first break came.

As such and although it wasn't very long, I couldn't bring myself to watch it all, when I had other films that I knew I would like more.

Unscored as Unfinished.

Melanie Chandra and Surina Jindal spread some humor and heart in this very funny holiday romp that starts off on Diwali and very quickly derails into a diamond-caper, putting our two heroines in the wrong place at the wrong time, and escalating into a series of bizzarely funny and troublesome events.

The equally funny supporting cast includes Punam Patel, Nick Dodani, Aparna Nancherla, Ravi Patel, Richa Moorjani, Chris Gere, Lilly Singh, Kunal Dudheker, Ritesh Rajan, Desmond Chan, Chris Parnell, Titus Burgess, and Kal Penn in a funny cameo role.

As an Indian it was great to see the movie provide a rich diverse tapestry of South Asian characters with uniquely quirky and idiosyncratic personalities that provides an overall comedic tone that doesn't rely on stereotypes and Indian accents for cheap laughs, or generic stories about arranged marriages as filler plot--which is no surprise since this movie made by South Asians (Hollywood...take note) Okay rant over.

Overall I enjoyed this movie and I hope to see more comedies starring South Asians. Surina and Mel...you deserve your own show and I want to see more adventures!

Didn't know what to expect. Saw a commercial for this and thought the two girls were funny so I tuned in. I'm not familiar with the Indian holiday Diwali nor as a white male can I completely identify with the issues these women are going through, but I have to say this was actually really funny. Found myself chuckling throughout - solid comedic timing of the two leads, but also the rest of the cast and cameos were hilarious. Sharp writing, great pacing. Just an enjoyable watch.