Sriram Raghavan’s ‘Merry Christmas’ is an elegant, experimental thriller that’s more interesting to think about than sit through
- Trinity Auditorium
- Jan 13, 2024
- 1 min read
The film stars Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif as strangers in the night. It is a narrative that is easier to admire for what has been attempted.
Most of the first half of Merry Christmas is foreplay of the most unexpected kind. We expect noir-ish thrillers from Sriram Raghavan, but we seem to be in some kind of romance – the kind where two strangers meet at night and spend a lot of time talking and just being with each other. Imagine Before Sunrise as written by the bastard child of James Hadley Chase and Gulshan Nanda, and you may get an idea. Vijay Sethupathi plays Albert Arockiasamy, a Tamilian who has returned to his home in Bombay (not Mumbai) after several years. His friendly landlord, played by Tinnu Anand, gives him a bottle of wine that he has made, and the brand name is Yadhoom. He tells Albert that the word stands for that moment we all search for, the moment towards which all existence has been preparing you, the moment when everything just… clicks. The deliberately paced first half of this film keeps preparing – and preparing, and preparing – us for the film’s Yadhoom Moment.
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