Merry Christmas Review: Katrina Kaif-Vijay Sethupathi Thriller Bewitches Even When It Baffles

Sriram Raghavan is the director of the 2024 Indian mystery thriller Merry Christmas, which stars Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif. Both Tamil and Hindi versions were filmed concurrently. Under the banners of Tips Films and Matchbox Pictures, Ramesh Taurani, Jaya Taurani, Sanjay Routray, and Kewal Garg produce the movie. Le Monte-charge, or "Bird in a cage," by Frédéric Dard, is the French novel on which it is based.

The official title of the movie, Merry Christmas, was revealed in December 2021. Principal photography began that same month in Mumbai and proceeded intermittently to Uttar Pradesh, then resumed in the previous site. It was completed by mid-January 2023. Madhu handled the film's photography, and Pritam, making his Tamil debut, composed the soundtrack.

Director : Sriram Raghavan

Names : Katrina Kaif,Vijay Sethupathi ,Sanjay Kapoor,Vinay Pathak ,Tinnu Anand,Ashwini Kalsekar,Radhika Apte.

Producer :Ramesh Taurani ,Sanjay Routray

Musician :Pritam Chakraborty

Lyricist: Yugabharathi

Cinematographer : Madhu Neelakandan

Editor : Pooja Ladha Surti

Merry Christmas, a quiet brainteaser that never loses its hold on viewers, is directed by Sriram Raghavan, Bollywood's undeniable master of pitch-black thrillers. Raghavan steps back from the racy narrative rhythm of Andhadhun and treads carefully between the unhurried and the urgent, the philosophical and the provocative, and the classy and the kicky.

If the black humour-laden 2018 thriller drew inspiration from the French short film L'accordeur (The Piano Tuner) and galloped in an all-new direction, the dual-version Merry Christmas, starring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi (as odd a screen couple as any in the history of Hindi and (probably) Tamil cinema) crafts a loose adaptation of the Gallic crime fiction writer Frederic Dard's book, Le Monte-charge.

Merry Christmas depicts the ups and downs of real life, yet the overall tone of the movie is very steady. Seldom is languor so completely mesmerizing. The movie's deliberate momentum—and sometimes even its slowness—is a crucial component of the overall concept. Each cut, angle of the camera, and piece of blocking heightens the sense of dread and suspense without giving away too much about what's going to happen next.

A split screen at the beginning of the movie shows two mixer-grinders. One turns lentils and chiles into maligai podi, while the other uses tablets to make a powder. Both hide sinister secrets. When they come to light, they expose two sides of compulsive love gone wrong. Really, isn't life just a grind? What one is able to create

Twenty years after making his screen debut in Ek Hasina Thi, Sriram Raghavan presents another delicious story about a lovely woman who is harassed by an unknown person. The damsel has developed into a mother, and this time she is hiding a secret from both the man and herself. We see some humorous and melancholic chats about unfulfilled love and unrelenting pain as they get along on Christmas Eve, but the slow-burn eventually consumes our attention, leaving plenty of soot in its wake.

This version of Bird in a Cage, a renowned French novel by Frederic Dard, tells the tale of a lengthy night that unfolds in Bombay, then known as Mumbai. After a protracted absence, Albert (Vijay Sethupathi) has returned to the city and is grieving the loss of his mother.

Starring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi, the film’s release date has been rescheduled to January 12 of the upcoming year, a decision the makers officially announced on Thursday. Initially slated for release on December 8, 2023, this shift marks another alteration in the film’s release schedule.

The journey of Merry Christmas through its release calendar has been quite a rollercoaster. Initially set for a December 15 premiere, it was initially set to clash with Dharma Production’s Yodha, featuring Siddharth Malhotra. However, both films decided to bring forward their release dates to December 8. Later on, Yodha opted to vacate the December window, rescheduling its release to March 15, 2024.

n the Hindi rendition, the film boasts a cast including Sanjay Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Pratima Kannan, and Tinnu Anand. Meanwhile, the Tamil version features Radhika Sarathkumar, Shanmugaraja, Kevin Jay Babu, and Rajesh Williams in analogous roles.

Adding to the star-studded lineup, Ashwini Kalsekar and Radhika Apte make cameo appearances in the film, while introducing Pari, a child actor, to the audience.