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 Produced by legendary Hollywood actor Robert De Niro’s daughter Drena
De Niro, Karma Aur Holi (earlier titled Karma Confessions and Holi) is
not your typical NRI flick that tries to force the message down your
throat about how better India is than the USA or how one is struggling
to find his own identity in the land of Uncle Sam, but then it is again
not a very engaging film that can be you focused for its two hour
running time.
Meera (Sushmita) is a financial consultant cum yoga teacher and her
hubby Dev (Hooda) runs publishing house. They have a great huge house
and everything seems to be going picture perfect or is it really? They
plan to throw a Holi bash for their friends and relatives at their new
mansion and all the guests assemble the evening before the Holi party.
Amongst them are Meera’s ever worrying sister Vani (Rati) and her
mature hubby Shekhar (Oberoi) and their 17 year old son Vikram
(Chandan), there is a male chauvinist Dr. Nimish with his docile wife
Sujata (Suchitra) and her sister Preeti (Deepal), there is Meera’s
wannabe filmmaker friend Javed (Armin Amiri) and his girlfriend
Jennifer (Naomi), Dev’s associate Geentanjali (Maya) and Meera’s tarot
reader friend Megan (Drena). As the evening begins to unfold, skeletons
start tumbling out of each of these characters’ bags and leads to
complicated situations. How those close to them and around them get
affected by these and what solutions come out of them when the ‘Holi’
day arrives forms the rest of the film.
The concept of the film is nice but it hasn’t really been developed
much. Lack of creative writing is seen at every step. The film tends to
get too much talkative with nothing much happening beyond the four
walls of the mansion. Then again, most of the problems or dilemmas
faced by the characters are plain clichéd like for example the MCP Dr.
Nimish and his docile wife track. You very well guess it that towards
the end she is going to walk out on him in the end. But what keeps you
some what attentive is the acting. Sushmita Sen rocks with her no
pretentious NRI accent act. She is perhaps the most loveable thing in
the film. Also, her topless act in the shower followed by her
smoochathon with Randeep gets many wolf whistles in the auditorium.
Randeep Hooda is okay but expressionless most of the time. Amongst
other who leave an impression are Suchitra Krishnamoorthy and Suresh
Oberoi. Famous international model Naomi Campbell is a major let down.
Not only is her role ill-developed but she is plain wooden.
Director Manish Gupta (not to be confused with The Stoneman Murders
director by the same name) has got together an ensemble cast but has
made a kind of a film that tries to tell many stories but none of which
is quiet interesting enough. At best, it makes for a good lazy Sunday
afternoon DVD watch.
Rating: 2 out of 5*
Starring: Sushmita Sen, Randeep Hooda, Drena DeNiro, Naomi Campbell,
Suresh Oberoi, Rati Agnihotri, Suchitra Krishnamoorthy and Deepal Shaw.
Director: Manish Gupta
Sampurn Media
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