O Natal de Costume

The cultural clash awaits as newly engaged Jashan and Thea fly to Norway to her family for celebrating Christmas. She hasn't informed her family about Jashan being an Indian, not even his full name and she wants to have a perfect Christmas celebration to find the right time to break the announcement. But his family is not nice towards Jashan with her ex boyfriend living next door to make couple of crucial moments complicated and she doesn't think preparing Jashan or giving him an heads up was necessary. Will she have her Christmas and save her love story forms rest of the story.

It's the age old love story of two people from different parts of the world, falling in love and one of them trying to fit into the world of the other. The problem is how one toned the characters are, giving little chance to empathize with any of them. Things keep getting hard for Jashan and what follows next was intended to be funny but it did not evoke any laughter. Limited India to the population count and spicy food was also not in good taste. Now characters can be self centered, but the narrative has to be balanced which wasn't the case here. This just didn't give enough to root for Thea as the film only succeeded in making me feel sad and sad for Jashan.

Why would you pack a kurta while travelling to Norway for Christmas?

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.

Thea was the only moderately redeemable character of the lot (and I guess the kid). I actually kind of hoped she would just run away from this circus of clowns, each of whom brought the fine viewers a rich palette of personality characteristics, ranging from the mildly disagreeable to the stupidly obnoxious.

Her finance Jashan... you ask someone off-hand to marry you and don't get an enthusiastic "yes;" then you show up at her family's doorstep during the holidays and start judging their traditions and imposing your own? I mean, I may not be up on all the latest trends, but am I meant to be told that a little self-awareness has gone out of style? What a pathetic rube, sorry!

Now, the mom. What kind of a bizarre household does she lead here? Am I missing something, or should you be way more understanding of a stranger not eating your bizarre delicacies, and way less accepting of someone using your kitchen or getting in a brawl? I mean, he's from another country not another planet. Just use some common sense!

As for the family and the ex - let me think... vapid, dim-witted, petty. These are a few words that come to mind. Okay, I did laugh at a couple of Simen's one-liners.

Overall, I get that they were trying to play on the culture clash thread (a genius ploy, as I don't recall this ever having been tried before). Unfortunately, everything else - from the interest level of the plot to the elemental reasonableness of the characters - was subjugated to these awkward tropes and cheap laughs. Of course, I'm sure this was always intended as a light comedy, and it was at least successful at not being a total bore.

I guess the part that saddens me is that it felt like maybe the filmmakers saw themselves as in on the joke - like "let's at least all agree that all these antiquated cultural norms are kind of a laugh." Cultural traditions can get stale, yes, but they are vectors for common values, belonging, depth, meaning, unity, and relationships. If these Netflix producers think they are mostly a punchline, then, I guess I pity them even more than their bumbling characters.

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.

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!