Although Sriram Raghavan’s latest outing, Merry Christmas (in Tamil and Hindi) has been advertised as a thriller, the film is far from it. On the contrary, it is a love story that plays out in many forms and layers.
The story unfolds on a single night, and it is Christmas in Bombay of 1980. The city, which was yet to be rechristened Mumbai, is all lit up with twinkling bulbs and paper stars with figures of Santa Claus all around. There is joy, there is cheer.
But two souls – Katrina Kaif’s Maria and Vijay Sethupathi’s Albert – are lonely. When they meet in a resto-bar, there is instant chemistry. She is running away from an abusive husband, and he has killed his wife and spent seven years in jail. Just out on parole, he is searching for that elusive love which can change his insipid life.
The yarn may not be novel, and we have seen men and women in such situations before. But I had hoped that Raghavan, who gave us an excellent Andhadhun and Badlapur, would take us through a meandering path peppered with surprises and shocks. There are a few though, but they are so far-fetched that they cross the boundaries of artistic licence.
In a scene, Albert asks Maria how she could have got two flats on different floors so identical. There was no reply, and I presumed that she had had a reason for getting this done. Pushed to her wits end by her drunkard husband, Jerome (Luke Kenny), she has been planning to bump him off at a very opportune moment. For this, she would need two similar-looking places. Such planning would have required a great deal of minute preparation. There is nothing in the movie to suggest, even remotely, that Maria could have been so capable.
Much like Andhadhun with a “blind” pianist (played with consummate ease by Ayushumann Khurrana) which ends on a note of shock, Merry Christmas too gets us to that kind of climax. Albert passes a ring to Maria, and decides to take the blame for her misdemeanour. My question here: there was very little to suggest any romance between them. And mind you, the whole thing happens during a few hours of a single night. Can one get such strong feelings for a woman to play the sacrificial goat? This is very unreal.
If Merry Christmas made an impression on me, it was because of the excellent performances by the lead pair. Katrina gets into the character with ease: As Maria, she brings a great deal of pathos to her part. This may well be her career best, and hats off to Raghavan for getting this out of her.
Vijay is undoubtedly a superb actor. Quite rightly, he refuses to get into the star mould, preferring to essay any part that he fancies. And he understands that cinema is not drama. The less spoken the better. There are several places where he simply answers with a nod or a subtle expression. This is just magnificent.
However, Vijay needs to improve his dialogue delivery. He seems to be eating up the last words of a sentence. Although he appears to be very similar to Marlon Brando in this department, the American actor despite his mumbling was clear. If Vijay could get over this, he would be one of the best actors India has ever produced.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are of the author alone and not the organisation.
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