Director Manish Gupta's Karma Aur Holi begins with a very interesting premise but then fails to deliver. The filmmaker had the makings of a very good story in his hands, but what comes across is something else altogether. There is no sense of naturalness in the film, with every situation and performance being so contrived and clichéd that it fails to connect and evoke any emotion whatsoever. Supposedly a film about human relationships, Karma Aur Holi should have touched a chord somewhere. Even the heavy duty passionate scenes between Sushmita Sen and ex boyfriend, Randeep Hooda (who was not an ex then) leave you cold.
The film begins with the story of Meera (Sushmita) and Dev (Randeep), who have been married for a while now and their marriage seems to have reached a plateau. The passion seems to have gone out of everything. The couple are waiting to have a child in the hope that it might make them come closer again. They throw a party on the eve of Holi which is attended by some of their family and close friends, each of who has a story to tell about their life and their angst.
There is Meera's sister Vani (Rati Agnihotri) and her husband Shekhar (Suresh Oberoi), whose 17 year old 'special' child, Vikram, is having his own problems dealing with racist remarks from his peers at school. There is Sujata (Suchitra Krishnamoorthy), who has a male chauvinist for a husband and a sister (Deepal Shaw), who believes that she is a femme fatale. Also thrown into this cauldron are a tarot reader, a filmmaker and his girlfriend, played by Naomi Campbell. All of these characters come together on the night before Holi at Meera and Dev's home, it is confession time as secrets come tumbling out of the closets following a few drinks. But all's well the next day, as they celebrate their liberation from their karma and play holi.
Part of the problem with the film is that, in its Hindi dubbed version, some of the very serious dialogues seem to lose their seriousness in translation and often end up sounding trite and funny. Of course, that does not take away from the fact that the film is very amateurish. The story and the plot have no hook and there does not seem to be any sense of direction.
Then there is no chemistry absolutely between the lead actors at all. But having said that, Sushmita is perhaps the only actor who makes some sort of a favourable impression in the movie with her performance. As for the rest of the cast, Suchitra too is a tad better than the rest. Suresh Oberoi and Rati Agnihotri seem to go through the motions as does Randeep Hooda. Deepal Shaw, who was last seen in a small role in A Wednesday, fails to impress. The presence of Naomi Campbell, Sticky Fingaz and Vincent Curatola adds nothing of value to the film.
There is little to recommend in Gupta's Karma Aur Holi. The fault surely lies with the director for being unable to translate his vision and story effectively on film.