Karma aur Holi is that rarest of things – a film so bad that it’s good. Let me explain. Many films are below average or just tediously bad but some are so brilliantly awful that they become instant classics – think of Sheetal’s Honey, Manoj Kumar’s Clerk or Mimoh Chakraborty’s debut vehicle Jimmy. Writer-director Manish Gupta’s Karma aur Holi is on par with these gems. It’s a non-stop unintentional comedy. I laughed so hard that my sides ached.

The film is about several Non-Resident Indians who come together for a Holi party in a suburban house near New York. Each one is grappling with his or her own problems – so Meera, a yoga teacher played by Sushmita Sen, can’t conceive; her husband, played by Randeep Hooda, is trying to save his faltering business; and Meera’s sister is an over protective mother with a teenage son whose hormones are kicking in. There are also some assorted non-Indians, one played by supermodel Naomi Campbell, who come with their own baggage.

The idea isn’t half bad but the execution is superbly hilarious. Karma aur Holi is consistently low IQ and contains some of the most comical dialogue I’ve ever seen in a film.

Gupta made the film in English but what’s releasing is a badly dubbed Hindi version. So, we have African American characters speaking in Hindi. At one point, Meera’s married neighbour, who is cavorting with two women in an inflated tub, tells his bodyguard: mein Jacuzzi main item ke saath maza kar raha hoon. Later on, Naomi’s boyfriend tells her, Humein shaadi kar leni chaiye, har mard aisa karta hai.

The performances are laughably bad and the filmmaking, amateurish. You’ve probably made home movies that are better crafted than this. The real mystery here is how Gupta roped Sushmita, Campbell and Robert De Niro’s daughter Drena De Niro into this unmitigated mess. I can’t recommend that you spend your hard-earned money on Karma aur Holi but do catch it on DVD. I haven’t had this much fun in months.