Merry Christmas Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
When the most interesting thing about a movie is its story. And the story isn’t the movie’s own, but still so very enjoyable to watch.
Does that make it a good movie?
Katrina is Maria, a young mother with a secret. Sethupathi is Albert, a man back in Mumbai after 7 years, also with a secret. On Christmas Eve, as South Mumbai is lit up in all its celebratory glory, these two meet at a restaurant, and the aforementioned secrets first are guarded with a little more ferocity, until the tough exteriors of both these people break, confessions morph, and mix to create even more secrets.
The title Merry Christmas perhaps is asking the viewers ki what is it that makes one truly happy. What is your definition of merriment, and how far would you go to achieve it? Once you realize no Santa is arriving to bring you any joy at midnight, will you become your own savior, and make your own Christmas a happy one?
Again, we’re stepping into mild spoiler territory, I can’t emphasize this enough. Who gets killed, and who does the killing obviously you won’t hear here, but if you like to pick up clues, don’t watch. Or watch.
“Kaid mein bulbul” motif presents itself throughout the film. Maria is in a terrible unhappy, probably abusive marriage, but cant leave for the sake of her child. The building’s elevators cast cage-like shadows on her face every time she goes up or down. A bird in-cage Christmas ornament makes its presence felt. And everything that goes on, happens in one night, compressed into a small time frame contributing to the claustrophobia even further. Albert on the other hand has regained his freedom after many years and when their paths cross, like osmosis confined narrow space begin to expand and Maria sees an out, and the open-ness of Albert’s new life begins to constrict around him once again, except he doesn’t know it.
We’ll come to Katrina and Sethupati in a minute, but for now, let’s talk about the story and its setting. The film is adapted by 4 writers, from Frédéric Dard’s French novel Le Monte-charge. Not having read the book, I have little understanding of how true to are far from the source material this film is. I, however, watched the book’s French cinematic adaptation from 1962, AFTER watching Merry Christmas, and looking at the similarities between the two films, I imagine Sriram Raghavan’s work is very close to the book. This made me wonder if this was simply adapted to an Indian context because one can find Alberts, Marias, Rosies, and Annies in Christian communities here. Also, by taking these French characters of the 60s and plonking them in “Mumbai when it was called Bombay”, without adding much more modern-day context, nuance, or commentary, are we perhaps without intention, “othering” the Christian population of the western coast of the country, by stepping into stereotype territory, painting them as a drunk, philandering, morally gray populous?
The French film is called Paris Pick-up in English. But let me warn you, Abhi, watching that MIGHT cloud your judgment of Merry Christmas Kyunki everything about that film is similar to this one, and better.
Small annoyances I had with Merry Christmas, were all answered in Paris Pick-up. For instance, in one scene Maria and Albert get together to demolish a few things in the middle of the night, inside a building. All I kept thinking was in the densely Bombay, can the neighbors not hear what’s going on? In Paris Pick-up, set in the 60s, the noise is acknowledged by shooting some scenes specifically highlighting how loud everything is, how noise carries in the empty space of the building, and why no one is around to hear it, whether you watch and see for yourself.
Merry Christmas is very, very stylish. Nearly every scene is set atop Daniel B George’s background score, a technically triumphant homage to the Hindi cinema of the 60s that mastered the camp murder mystery. Teesri Manzil, Jewel Thief, Hamraz…. in turn, inspired by visual stylings of a Hitchcock movie and literal twists of a Sherlock Holmes novel. It’s truly delightful to hear Sriram Raghavan and editor slash co-writer Pooja Ladha Surti’s aural take on “Something is afoot”, the music enables you to almost visualize a graceful, agile, acrobatic, tiny-framed thief jumping from scene to scene, sniggering to itself, finger on its lips. Which it makes it more disappointing to see the film stomp heavily, where it needed to also be light-footed, most prominently the opulent richness of the set where most of the action takes place, that is Maria’s apartment. The exquisite beauty of production designer Mayur Sharma’s work weighs too heavy, and in effect, distracts from the people in front of it.
Vijay Sethupathi is perfectly understated as Albert. A man who’s returned to the city after many years isn’t quite what he thought it would be. He says Pinnochio is his favorite film, yet he is the most honest character in the story. Even his lies, have noble intentions behind them. Him telling Maria “I’ll have anything fermented except dosa batter” when asked to come in for a drink is funny in the sardonic, smart-assy way Sethupati is known to sardonically play smart-assy characters. He enjoys the freedom he suddenly has, by claiming the city at night. Having a coffee on the street, watching a movie in a large theatre, talking to a singer at a bar, eating a comically larger sizzling dish, bringing you along to each little adventure in a way only a gifted actor and their inquisitive eyes can.
Merry Christmas is also Katrina Kaif’s finest performance, at par with her role in Zero. Maria isn’t a particularly motherly figure, her attention wavers from her child a lot, but that’s perhaps because Maria didn’t WANT to be a mother. She wants what Albert now has, the freedom to be by herself. Katrina is understated and like her character keeps it together, rehearsed and on plan, right until the end.
The film ends at a police station where ALL the characters finally get together in one place, their stories and alibis crisscrossing. Police officers played by a perplexed-looking Vinay Pathak hilariously caricaturing a detective from a mystery novel and Pratima Kannan as his subordinate who’d rather be anywhere but at her job, and hence is in a rush to tie all loose ends. The police provide comic relief, a welcome puncture to the tension, and yet they don’t cross over into cartoons. When Vinay Pathak walks away to take a “thinking break”, the scene is as funny as a Tiku Talsania Aamir and Salman in Andaz Apna Apna, and when he inches closer to the truth within seconds it is as intense as Pran and Amitabh Bachchan in Zanjeer. The tonal shifts are masterful, doing successfully what I think Dunki tried to attempt.