Christmas, Santa-Claus and pop-culture in India
I wish you a very Merry Christmas my readers. In this article let us talk about Christmas themes in entertainment, Indian pop-culture and good old Bollywood. Can’t wait? Skip the intro and jump to the meaty bits now.
Here are some Christmas wishes from me to you :
- I wish you the strength to ignore sale-notifications from your shopping app.
- I wish you strength to endure the office Secret-Santa ordeal. We all hate this mug-and-photo-frame-exchange-festival.
That being said, let us talk about Christmas, Santa Claus and associated pop-culture in India.
Bollywood has not produced a Christmas movie- yet. We have our songs and films about Holi, Eid, Diwali, Lohri, Karwa Chauth, Easter, Valentines’ Day, New Years’ Day, but not Christmas.
But Hollywood Christmas movies are extremely popular in India, thanks to the rise of television. Every Christmas, TV Channels knew that kids were going to stay home, not play outside much because it was cold, and parents would want a way to keep them occupied. The profitable solution was to play marathons of Christmas movies.
Home Alone, Disney and the X-mas x-factor:
Everyone who grew up in the 90s and 00s has spent numerous Christmas afternoons enjoying Home Alone. And now, thirty years later a lot of us find ourselves home alone on Christmas because of COVID 19. Maybe you can watch Home Alone one more time. It is on Hotstar, Amazon Prime (US), and can be rented on YouTube. Or you can check out more content.
Home Alone was the second highest grossing movie of 1990. Experts have speculated about its unusual success, but in our hearts we know it. It was fun, it was easy to slip into for kids and adults alike. The movie enjoys growing popularity even in the age of endless internet content. It has been re-watched and combed for memes, plot holes, lack of logic and its heavy demand for suspension of disbelief.
Fans have mused that today, Kevin’s shenanigans would be impossible with smartphones and other intrusive technology. As fan service, Macaulay Culkin recreated his Home Alone scenes in 2018, but with a techie twist in this clever Google commercial.
Trivia : The film also inspired someone to make Hari Puttar (2008). The title is a Punjabi play on Harry Potter, but that’s about it. The plot is lifted from Home Alone. Hilariously enough, Warner Bros. sued the makers for the title copyright and lost.
In 2004, Disney launched Disney Channel India. It gave us access to Christmas specials of OG shows, re-runs of classic Disney movies, High School Musical series. I do not celebrate Christmas, but I got all the feels during this episode.
Christmas in Indian films and television :
Indian shows hardly made any Christmas specials back then, but I remember an episode from Shaktimaan. The plot is rather non-festive : It is a dull Christmas party, Santa Claus in his red suit shows up, and so does gold and maroon Shaktimaan. He steals Santa’s thunder and performs this song. Then, Santa Claus tries to kill Shaktimaan, not out of jealousy, but he is actually a mutant villain. Shaktimaan gets the best of him and kills fake Santa. Um, Merry Christmas I guess?
Santa Claus was used as a comic-relief character in Channel V’s rib-tickling Santa-Banta sketches. Its a play on Santa from the famous Santa-Banta jokes, but Santa is Santa Claus and he is a party-loving Punjabi dude. The skits show them partying in Goa , enjoying WWE, killing it on the dance floor, promoting their political party called ‘Dance Party’.
Facing the music :
If a survey for most parodied song of all times was ever performed, Jingle Bells would come up to the top. Christmas songs are often parodied and covered.
In 1974, Kishore Kumar sang the song ‘Aata Hai Aata Hai, Santa Claus Aata Hai’ which is a Hindi cover of Jingle Bells. It is very wholesome, but the surprising fact is that Santa Claus is played by Sanjeev Kumar. Yup. Thakur from Sholay.
A duo called Boymongoose released a cheeky version of ’12 Days of Christmas’ with references to NRI stereotypes. They later went on to release a Christmas-songs parody themed album called ‘Asia Minor.’ Their version of 12 Days of Christmas was really popular, I recall MTV India playing it as a filler. I thought that the song was really funny and catchy back then, but it has not aged well at all. Yikes.
Ho Ho Ho…ld on :
With all the great opportunities for storytelling around Christmas, Bollywood must step up its game. Are there any Christmas gems hiding in regional cinema? Comment below, or tweet your suggestions @pop_partner.
