Merry Christmas movie review: Terrific Katrina Kaif, Vijay Sethupathi deliver a solid start to the new year – The Indian Express
A time that was, in a metropolis that was Bombay. A balmy Christmas Eve. Two lonely strangers. Sriram Raghavan’s Merry Christmas delivers what it guarantees — an aching mixture of nostalgia and romance, intrigue and suspense — in a stable begin to the brand new yr.
There are only a few filmmakers who can create a slice of the previous in such a deeply affectionate, genuine method, and Raghavan is a type of.As a result of he’s such a movie aficionado, we count on and get every kind of shout-outs, to the 1962 French movie ‘Le Monte-charge’ ‘Merry Christmas’ relies on, the pulsating track ‘jab andhera hota hai’ from the 1973 Bollywood potboiler ‘Raja Rani’, the covers of such evergreen LPs as ‘McKenna’s Gold’, and that grasp of noir thrillers, Raymond Chandler. It’s all a classic wine vibe, fiery and silky.
We aren’t given a date, however it’s positively the previous: an unfettered festive spirit is within the air, the streets are buzzing with low slung automobiles full of merry-makers, strings of shiny bulbs criss-cross housing compounds, dimly-lit eating places served by women in Santa caps that serve a really crimson spaghetti, aged uncles brandish potent home-made wine, a well-known South Bombay film corridor welcomes its patrons into its darkish interiors. Something can occur, and it does.
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Albert (Vijay Sethupati) and Maria (Katrina Kaif) don’t actually meet cute within the traditional girl-and-boy approach. This can be a extra lived-in, mature bump-into-each-other in a sequence of what-you-here-again method which makes you grin. The truth is, for all the first hour of the 2 hour-duration of ‘Merry Christmas’, I didn’t cease smiling, as a result of as Albert, again in Bombay after seven years of being away, watches Maria battle to carry on to her sleepy little daughter and her large teddy bear, after which retains displaying up until she invitations him inside her house, it’s all suitably dreamy and magical.
Merry Christmas film trailer:
A useless physique stiffening in an armchair stops the revelry in its tracks. Extra individuals begin crowding the body — Sanjay Kapoor as a stranger who thinks he may get fortunate with the beautiful girl, Vinay Pathak as a policeman on the spot, Pratima Kazmi as his suspicious colleague, Radhika Apte and Ashwini Kalsekar in walk-on components — issues slacken considerably, and that’s additionally a really Raghavan factor, this flattening patch as soon as the set-up has reached its pitch. However a well-judged climactic curveball, additionally attribute of the director, stiffens all sinews, and we’re again on edge: what’s going to occur now?
That post-interval stoop is a factor, but it surely isn’t a deal-breaker. As a result of very quickly after they fall into step, strolling by means of the streets, exchanging kindling glances, constructing confidences, we’re prepared for all good issues to occur to those two, who’ve had a tough time up till now of their seek for love.
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They make for an unlikely pair, however they make it work, getting previous the few bumps: Katrina Kaif, who has at all times hinted (keep in mind her in ‘Zero’?) that she could be an actor beneath all that pancake and bump-and-grind, makes us consider in her Maria, together with her crimson lips and seductive change of gown: is she as harmless as she makes herself out to be? And Vijay Sethupati’s Albert is simply flat-out terrific, completely balancing yearning-and-caring in the best way he responds to the beautiful Maria, jiving and swaying, and holding us shut. I can see the movie once more only for this pas-de-deux.
Merry Christmas film forged: Katrina Kaif, Vijay Sethupathi, Sanjay Kapoor, Tinnu Anand, Vinay Pathak, Pratima Kazmi, Radhika Apte, Ashwini Kalsekar
Merry Christmas film director: Sriram Raghavan
Merry Christmas film score: 3 stars
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