Murder mystery fans know that while there is a place for the quick dive and big reveals, there is something to be said about slow burn and hints that make the coming together of things that much more satisfying. Sriram Raghavan’s Merry Christmas is an ode to the latter, taking its sweet time to set up the characters and build its world before arriving at a conclusion that will leave you feeling satisfied.
Set over the course of one night, Christmas Eve to be precise, in South Bombay (yes, this is the yesteryears when Mumbai was still Bombay, train stations had weighing machines that churned out tickets with one-line philosophies and faces of film stars, double decker buses still zoomed down the roads, people listened to Western classical music on gramophones and grooved to bands in restaurants) the film, written by Raghavan, Pooja Ladha Surti, Arijit Biswas and Anukriti Pandey, is a tale of two lonely strangers who make a connection.
And strangely, the unlikely pair of Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif actually make that connection believable enough to pull you into their stories. Sethupathi’s Albert returns home after years to an empty house, his mother having passed away in his absence. Kaif’s Maria is the mother of a young girl with an absentee husband. Both are seemingly looking to alleviate loneliness for one evening. Or are they?
Right from the beginning, Raghavan introduces a sense of unease, as if things aren’t what they seem but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Sethupathi’s poker-faced presence makes you wonder what Albert is hiding. When Maria invites Albert — an absolute stranger she met at a restaurant and who followed her to a movie hall — home, you wonder why she isn’t more worried and if there is something behind her fragile, beguiling facade.
Their connection is forged inside beautifully shot wallpapered living rooms in art deco buildings and brightly lit Christmas markets, in gloomy graveyards and over secret childhood diaries. Sethupathi is sublime in the role. He speaks little but conveys a lot through his eyes and through action — one particular scene towards the end really stands out. He is a great foil for Kaif who does a great job of playing the effervescent Maria with a touch of sadness.
Things start unravelling hilariously, or coming together in terms of the story, soon enough and what started out as an evening of whirlwind romance feels like it is descending into a comically dark nightmare as more characters, past and present, get added to the tale. Sanjay Kapoor, Radhika Apte, Luke Kenny, Vinay Pathak and Pratima Kazmi all play secondary characters who further the plot and bring the tale to its conclusion.
That nagging sense of unease pays off as lies and deceit pour forth — at one point this reviewer thought there was something fishy about Maria’s daughter; turns out it wasn’t a red herring, just Kaif’s inability to be convincing in emotionally charged scenes — and it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Raghavan drops hints right from the beginning for the observant viewer to pick up.
One of the highlights of Merry Christmas is how Raghavan uses music to build mystery and intrigue, whether it is a Western classical piece with its slow build-up to a crescendo or old movie tunes like Jab andhera hota hai from Raja Rani.
For many, the slow build-up with picturesque shots of Bombay and close-ups of seemingly innocuous things may feel too long and, well, slow, but your patience will be rewarded when the film reaches its climax. The ultimate outcome can go either way — it will either move you or feel underwhelming but it will take nothing away from the fact that this is a master storyteller weaving a deft tale.
