Atime that was, in a city that was Bombay. A balmy Christmas Eve. Two lonely strangers. Sriram Raghavan’s Merry Christmas delivers what it promises — an aching mix of nostalgia and romance, intrigue and suspense — in a solid start to the new year.
There are very few filmmakers who can create a slice of the past in such a deeply affectionate, authentic manner, and Sriram Raghavan is one of those. We aren’t given a date, but it is definitely the past: an unfettered festive spirit is in the air, the streets are humming with low slung cars filled with merry-makers, strings of shiny bulbs criss-cross housing compounds, dimly-lit restaurants served by girls in Santa caps that serve a very red spaghetti, elderly uncles brandishing potent home-made wine, a famous South Bombay movie hall welcoming its patrons into its dark interiors. Anything can happen, and it does.
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Albert (Vijay Sethupati) and Maria (Katrina Kaif) don’t really meet cute in the classic girl-and-boy way. This is a more lived-in, mature bump-into-each-other in a series of what-you-here-again manner which makes you grin. In fact, for the entire first hour of the two hour-duration of ‘Merry Christmas’, I didn’t stop smiling, because as Albert, back in Bombay after seven years of being away, watches Maria struggle to hold on to her sleepy little daughter and her huge teddy bear, and then keeps showing up till she invites him inside her home, it’s all suitably dreamy and magical.
Merry Christmas movie trailer:
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A dead body stiffening in an armchair stops the revelry in its tracks. More people start crowding the frame — Sanjay Kapoor as a stranger who thinks he might get lucky with the lovely lady, Vinay Pathak as a policeman on the spot, Pratima Kazmi as his suspicious colleague, Radhika Apte and Ashwini Kalsekar in walk-on parts — things slacken somewhat, and that’s also a very Raghavan thing, this flattening patch once the set-up has reached its pitch. But a well-judged climactic curveball, also characteristic of the director, stiffens all sinews, and we are back on edge: what’s going to happen now?
That post-interval slump is a thing, but it isn’t a deal-breaker. Because very soon after they fall into step, walking through the streets, exchanging kindling glances, building confidences, we are willing for all good things to happen to these two, who’ve had a rough time up until now in their search for love.
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They make for an unlikely pair, but they make it work, getting past the few bumps: Katrina Kaif, who has always hinted (remember her in ‘Zero’?) that she can be an actor underneath all that pancake and bump-and-grind, makes us believe in her Maria, with her red lips and seductive change of dress: is she as innocent as she makes herself out to be? And Vijay Sethupati’s Albert is just flat-out terrific, perfectly balancing yearning-and-caring in the way he responds to the lovely Maria, jiving and swaying, and holding us close. I can see the film again just for this pas-de-deux.
Merry Christmas movie cast: Katrina Kaif, Vijay Sethupati, Sanjay Kapoor, Tinnu Anand, Vinay Pathak, Pratima Kazmi, Radhika Apte, Ashwini Kalsekar
Merry Christmas movie director: Sriram Raghavan
Merry Christmas movie rating: 3 stars
