As enjoyable as movies like RRR or Pathaan can be, Indian Cinema, at least as seen in the West, can pitfall into action epics or comedies, with song and dance interludes in a 2 and a half hour movie. But Sriram Raghavan paved a different road with 2018’s Andhadhun: a wicked, pitch black comedy satire thriller, the likes of which I’ve never seen in Indian cinema before. The pandemic delayed Raghavan from bringing his dark fun to Bollywood a few years. And even though Merry Christmas opened a few weeks after December 25th, some movie gifts are better late then never.
It’s 1980s Bombay (not Mumbai yet). Albert Arogyasami (Vijay Sethupathi) has just returned home after seven years away on Christmas Eve. His first night back he decides to go out, and runs into Maria (Katrina Kaif), her daughter Annie (Pari Maheshwari Sharma), and Annie’s giant teddy bear. Annie’s also had a rough go of it recently, and after watching a movie at the same theater with Albert, connects with him and he with the mother/daughter. Alone on Christmas like him, she invites him back for a drink, where they put her to bed, and walk and talk all night, arriving home in the wee hours of the morning.
Having seen a Sriram Raghavan film before, it’s a testament to his script at the magic trick it pulls in the first hour. Those expecting something violent or wicked will find, instead…a romcom? Vijay and Maria both find themselves alone on Christmas, the most emotionally brutal day to be by yourself. The hour together is a fun game of cat and mouse, as the two slowly open up to one another. There’s a really cute dance sequence, some My Night At Maud’s like walk and talks, and little revelations that draw the audience in, and introducing maybe more questions than answers. All this is thanks to Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif, both excellently playing love weary people dying for some good fortune in their sad, stuck lives.
And all that magic just fades away right in the middle with one of those Raghavan thriller drops. The romcomy vibe of the first half of the movie evolves, or should I say devolves, into a mystery thriller, just like that, with about 10-15 minutes of really big reveals that completely sucked me in by unmooring the story. The audience like me will start playing back what we just saw in our heads, searching for clues at what the hell has happened, and who has been hiding what. Raghavan then settles into the third act, unpeeling the onion layers to get all the information out in the open little by little. Along the way, he ups the tension, with all sorts of near misses, new characters immersed in the action with their mysterious motivations, and backstories that completely alter our previous understanding of our two leads. The ending goes on a bit long, but it at least stays true to the characters and their arcs over the course of Christmas, leading to, if not a satisfying ending, at least an acceptable one.
Poor Merry Christmas was beset on all sides by delays and bad timing, eerily mirroring the story itself. I hope all the bad juju got out of Sriram Raghavan’s system in this one, so he can bring us his next thriller ASAP. And if Merry Christmas is him “missing” I can’t wait to see him when he’s firing on all cylinders like Andhadhun. PS: I put the trailer below, but don’t watch it. Best to go into Merry Christmas cold to get the most out of the experience.