‘Christmas with the Singhs’ Is Not Just a Fun Hallmark Movie — It’s Personal Filmmaking
Hallmark Channel movies can have quite a bit in common with indie movies: Small budgets (the average Hallmark holiday movie is made for about $3.25 million, IndieWire’s Samantha Bergeson reported) and tight shooting schedules averaging two weeks. In terms of cinematic values, though, these highly watchable festive gems can also share quite a bit with indies: They’re character-driven, they’re script-driven, and they’re usually about the smaller but more important things in life — meeting someone new, seizing an unexpected opportunity, reviving a long-forgotten passion. They’re about connection and fulfillment. They’re about intimacy rather than production value and spectacle.
By no means are all of the new Hallmark holiday movies each year good. Far from it. Some very much are, though, and cut through the noise. They’re often the ones that end up being re-aired again and again year after year. And, yes, Hallmark movies may have certain repeated tropes. But don’t a good number of Sundance movies, also?
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They also occasionally can be vehicles for genuinely personal filmmaking. On that point, let us direct you to the best new Hallmark holiday movie of the 2024 season: “Christmas with the Singhs.” This is the Desi Christmas rom-com we’ve all needed, even if we didn’t know it. It’s marked by a level of specificity and detail that can’t be faked, and that’s because it’s deeply rooted in the experiences of its writer Patricia Isaac, of Indian descent herself, who even co-founded the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival.
“Christmas with the Singhs” centers on Asha (Anuja Joshi), a nurse who reconnects with Jake (Benjamin Hollingsworth), who she went to high school with. They fall in love, he proposes, she accepts, but then she realizes: He didn’t ask her father for his permission to marry her, a big no-no for her traditional family. Or at least one that would cause a good bit of awkwardness when she brings him home for Christmas. All manner of “monster-in-law” type shenanigans ensue with a heavy dose of culture-clash cringe: Jake instantly falls into the white guy trope of not being able to handle Indian spices in the Singhs’ home cooking. But in the hands of Isaac, who co-wrote the script with Emily Ting, it’s given a bunch of details that go beyond the expected.
First and foremost is the fact that the Singhs are devout Christians — a reminder of the fact that there are almost 28 million Christians in India, let alone the diaspora. Not something that’s presented all that much in U.S. film or TV productions. And it’s a reflection of Isaac’s own experience growing up Indian-Canadian and Christian in Edmonton. Some of her specific family Christmas traditions even made it into her story.
In a heartfelt post on Instagram, Isaac wrote, “Growing up I got to experience my grandfather telling Christmas stories to children in his neighborhood in India, regardless of faith, giving little gifts and bringing people together. I grew up on candlelit services on the 24th… watching ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’ for the 25th time but laughing like it was the 1st time…it was never really about what was inside the wrapping paper.”
In “Christmas with the Singhs,” it’s Asha’s father who reads the story of the first Christmas to the neighborhood children every Christmas eve, a tradition he used to adhere to in India, as well, before he emigrated.
“The thing is, I rarely (to never) saw a family that looked like mine celebrating Christmas on TV or in the movies. If they were there I definitely missed them,” Isaac continued. But with “Christmas with the Singhs,” “I had the privilege of sharing the traditions, stories, comedy and love I’ve experienced in my own family and relationships over the years. Some is fiction some is fact — I’ll let you decide what you think is what.”
“Christmas with the Singhs,” which is directed by Panta Mosleh, is so lighthearted and fun that you may not be thinking that what you’re watching is a milestone of representation. But it is a milestone. (The fact that it’s written and directed entirely by women of color is all the more impressive.) And it’s not a coincidence that it’s airing on Hallmark, which, with roughly 50 new holiday movies a season, is capable of telling a wide range of stories and putting them in front of a large audience.
As traditional distribution for indies continues to struggle, one wonders if, say, “Bend It Like Beckham,” which became an indie hit in 2002 and 2003 with a $76 million box office gross, and covers similar culture-clash terrain, would find that crossover audience in theaters today. On the other hand, as Hallmark regular Nikki Deloach told IndieWire recently, “Hallmark, every Friday, every Saturday, every Sunday night, is number one on cable.” That means the audience is already built-in for “Christmas with the Singhs” — and watching it will be well worth their time. And yours.
“Christmas with the Singhs” premiered on Hallmark Channel on November 15. It will air again on December 19 and December 25.
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