Merry Christmas Movie Review: Jai Sriram!

Movie Merry ChristmasUA Thriller RomanceDirector Sriram RaghavanCast Katrina Kaif Vijay SethupathiRating 355While the film is titled Merry Christmas primarily set in an apartment above a bakerymdashone thing you know even before stepping into the theatre is itrsquoll be loaded with trays after trays of Easter eggs Meaning inside jokes and references to books movies popculture in generalSometimes overtly so in the sense of a screaming dedication to director Shakti Samanta to start with a or a thankyou credit for French filmmaker Eacuteric RohmerBut mostly subtle for the spottingmdashin the sense of say the Parinda song Pyar ke mod pe playing for muzak in the oldworld cinema Regal followed by the familiar tune of the lsquoLime lsquonrsquo lemony Limcarsquo adWe look forward to such elements even return to rewatch films for that reason alonemdashbecause itrsquos directed by Sriram Raghavan easily the most loved filmbuff filmmaker this side of Quentin TarantinoFor whatrsquos nostalgia anyway if not gleaning through stuff from the past near or distant that made you feel so happymdashas it instantly does when you relive it through familiar sounds images experiencesWhile this is technically a thriller involving death in factmdashMerry Christmas strangely feels like a cheery film Besides the catty dialogues much of the joyousness comes from the sorted lead actors on the screenmdashKatrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi Seldom have stars from separate skies been positioned so well opposite each otherTherersquos an inherent genuineness if not goodness about the Tamilian veteran Sethupathi Super Deluxe Farzi as a person perhaps that it simply shines through the screen no matter what he plays on itFor instance he could seem completely creepy alongside the effervescent relaxed casually stunning Kaif that his relatively unkempt character bumps into at a restaurant in this filmmdashand pretty much follows her around thereafterAn inexplicable alchemy between Kaif and Sethupathi makes the most unlikely situations appear wholly believable You just connect And donrsquot question whyMerry Christmas is set over a night in Bombaymdashas the filmmakers put when it wasnrsquot Mumbai yet How do we know this without saying itTo begin with watching the male lead step off the rainbowcoloured weighing machine in a railway station that coughs out a ticket with your weight and lifersquos prediction on it Yoursquove got to be of a certain vintage to realise how much we loved getting on those weighing machines with a coin on rail platforms growing upWhere is Sethupathirsquos character from He says Dubai and that he hated the discipline there which sounds like a jail His mother has died which makes him a bit of a Camus existentialist fellow looking lost simply going about his first night upon return to his cityWhat about the gorgeous lady with a globish accent Kaif who takes him home Well yoursquore not supposed to know much about these two people besides the events that bind them togetherRaghavan as a tightly crafty filmmaker is the master of the first half when he lays out a plot Often he could paint himself in the corner while concluding what hersquos set upmdashcase in point Ek Hasina Thi 2004 his directorial debut itselfWith Merry Christmas you could go through the first half laughing at the lines soaking in the atmosphere intrigued by the characters but reach the interval and wonder ldquoBut hey nothing really happened here it felt like a playrdquoWhich it is while the plot triggers off only in the second half as more actorsmdashthe quintessential happy men Sanjay Kapoor Tinnu Anand includedmdashadd to the suspenseSince there is a death there will be cops with our own Hercule Poirot Vinay Pathak on the beat But yoursquod do yourself a favour by not deciphering this like a police proceduralThe eyes inevitably alert to every moment stay glued to the smart storytelling and the actors of course Each in top form The film is admittedly based on a French novel Le Montecharge which Irsquom pretty sure you havenrsquot read Neither have IThe film also credits a separate writing team for its Tamil version Which makes me wanna watch that version all the moremdashfor how the story plays out there besides spotting more Easter Eggs obviously The ending for example Itrsquos openended yesHard for Raghavan to resist that ever since the level of fanfiction derived from the mischievous conclusion of Andhadhun 2018 his last release Does the suspensedrama and the turns and twists in Merry Christmas top Andhadhun Nopemdashbut nothing since has either Fun followup though