O Natal de Costume

Funny view on culture crash between Norway and the outside world.

Remember that there are only 5 million Norwegians, and Jul and May 17 are days where we are focused on our traditions. Our ways are a bit strange.

Jashan is representing the outside world. Nothing to do with his nationality specifically.

As a Norwegian I felt this made me think of how hung up we are on our traditions.

25% of our population migrated to USA in the late 1800s. For those left it was a crisis and the national romanticism started in Norway. Bunad, Jul tradition and more were important when rebuilding our nation's self esteem.

Can't believe Kanan liked this script . Or the money 🤑

While the movie touches on race and cultural differences. None of the people are not at fault. The inlaws are mildly racist, sure. But the fault is also on Jashan for being a bulldozer in the party. Like dude, you're a guest, act like one instead of overtaking someone else's party when youve never met them!

Sure Thea was embarrassed about him (cant completely blame her) , she did take accountability for it.

Jahan on the other hand was disrespectful af , typical small town indian mentality who mocks foreign culture. Like how dumb do you have to be to know that Norwegians don't like spicy. He ruins her Christmas for the family.

Instead of allowing them to get comfortable and break the ice in their time he constantly butts in with his stupid thoughts. Sad that he was the weakest character and Kanan didn't have better inputs considering he's one of the top indian "comedians".

As someone who lives abroad and likes other cultures, his character is your stereotypical Desi person who is annoying wants to make everything indian and doesn't have the grace to learn. Like dude you're getting married, Thea learned about your culture, why can't you. "How am I supposed to know that". Well, Google!

I wouldn't say the story hinges on racism as much as having to deal with a belligerent, annoying boyfriend.

The end of the movie however made me cry and only because the Norwegian cast, especially one playing Thea did such a great job portraying all the emotions succinctly with such an awful script.

Shame on you Kanan, being an indian you could've set the record straight instead of pocketing Netlfix money and bullying you to mouth lines that were crass. Then he'll release a special about how Europeans are racist when he did nothing to correct and enabled it.

I used to love KGs comedy specials, they were fun, high on dry humor and dare I say intellectual. This movie was the opposite of that.

If you hate annoying Desi stereotypes, skip this. If I were Thea, I would dump his ass and I'm indian!

It's a Christmas movie. Just like hundreds of them. You expect to have a good time, drop some laughs from the awkwardness and that's all. We cannot always expect "Love Actually".

And for the people who thinks that's awful and makes sense and the characters are not believable... come one, it says right at the beginning that is a true story!

Most of the characters have ridiculous situations and apart from artistic freedom, thinking that some of them happened to the real "Shazam" and Thea... well, I can relate. Mothers in law and unfitting can be like that.

So, it's not Love Actually as said before but also it is not mass production Christmas's Walmart movies.

I watched the movie with very high hopes but ended up being highly disappointed. It is a lost opportunity and I feel it would probably offend people from both the countries. I am Indian and no, we don't behave like Jashan. His character was downright rude and obnoxious. I felt the Secondhand embarassment throughout. Thea's family was equally hostile towards Jashan. Eventually it was a mess where no-one could evoke any sympathy! I think the only likeable characters were the child and her mother. The last 5 minutes of the movie were good. Rest of the movie is completely directionless in my opinion.

Jashan is over the top obnoxious as is most of this cast. Everyone is so flat, or uninteresting, or just mean. Jashan is like a bull in a china shop, he is wholly self unaware, doesn't bring much to the table. Nothing likable about his overbearing character. I was rooting for the girl to dump him. The Norwegian family is wholly inflexible and just not likable at all from the start. There is no chemistry between the two main characters. This may be technically a Christmas movie, but there is no warmth or real affection, especially at the end of the movie where they try to wrap it into a nice little funny love fest package, but it fails miserably. They could have called this Skunk, because-yes it's a stinker. Could have been better, writing was awful.