In "Mixing Karma", Ryan (Collin Stark) is sure he's destined to become an artist. His father thinks otherwise, but the Indian family across the street is happy to support, until their daughter gets involved. It's a low-budget romantic comedy about family, pursuing your dreams and then pursuing the girl.
All the elements in the story have been done before and been done better than this. There wasn't anything particularly thoughtful added to the whole struggling artist, conservative father, and clash of cultures ideas. Although, making those ideas seem new would be putting the film on a whole other playing field which isn't exactly fair to it.
I enjoyed the main actors and their characters. They were fairly charming and sweet if not all that funny. The minimal atmosphere of the film due to the low budget doesn't help it, or the actors. The acting and the dialogue all seemed very forced. You're going to need to be really interested in the story to be able to get past that.
What is different to "Mixing Karma" is that we see Ryan's art. Apparently, it's real art created by the filmmaker when he was a struggling artist. To the untrained eye, the art looked exceptionally good, and it added a much needed sense of realism to the tired story. For a good mix of art to a rather stale romantic comedy, "Mixing Karma" isn't all that bad.
