The Katrina Kaif-Vijay Sethupathi thriller surprises but enchants
Director Sriram Raghavan, Bollywood’s undisputed master of pitch-dark thrillers, has stepped back a bit from its racy narrative beat. blind and walks a fine line between unhurried and urgent, philosophical and provocative, and classy and kooky. merry christmasA cool head scratcher that never lets go of its grip on the audience.
Black humor-filled 2018 thriller if inspired by French short films L’accordeur (Piano tuner) and gallops in a whole new direction, dual-edition merry christmasStarring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi (as odd as any screen couple in the history of Hindi and (perhaps) Tamil cinema), Gaelic created a loose adaptation of crime fiction writer Frederic Dard’s book, Le Monte-Charge
The title of the French story literally translates as ‘Dumbwaiter’. In English it was known as novel bird in the cage. A freight elevator and a trapped avian are both relevant similes in the context of the story merry christmas Set in the Bombay Christian community of the 1980s.
Literally, things – and life – go up and down merry christmasBut the film itself is stupendously even-keeled. Rarely are langurs so completely hypnotic. The film’s controlled pace, even its lack of pace at times, is an integral part of the design. Every cut, every camera angle and every bit of blocking heightens anticipation and foreboding, without telling exactly what to expect.
The film opens with a split screen revealing two mixer-grinders. One reduces the chilli and lentils Podi MaligaiAnother makes a powder from tablets. Both hide dark secrets. As they unfold, they reveal two sides of passionate love. Isn’t life really a grind? Depending on what it creates – as it does with the film’s two protagonists – what flavor it leaves.
Filled with stylistic, visual and musical richness that significantly heightens the mystery surrounding the Christmas Eve ‘romance’ between a small wide-eyed girl (Pari Maheshwari Sharma)’s unhappily married mother and a mysterious loner who returns to her Mumbai home. long absence
merry christmas It is as Hitchcockian in its unsettling twists and turns as it is Rohmerian in its sustained and relentlessly unsentimental moral exploration of the dynamics of love, loyalty and betrayal.
The screenplay by Raghavan, Arijit Biswas, Pooja Ladha Surti (also the film’s editor) and Anukriti Pandey is full of scattershots that gain increasing meaning as the plot revolves around a woman’s home situated above a family bakery and delivering butter biscuits to schools. .
Even when the screen is just talking, or exchanging confused glances between two strangers or resorting to awkward silences to try to bridge the gap between Maria (Katrina Kaif) and Albert (Vijay Sethupathi). This film has so much for viewers to savor – and unpack – that it never for a moment feels pretentious or unduly deliberate.
Katrina Kaif, in one of the most convincing screen performances of her career, in a strikingly minimalist manner, confusion and vulnerability veiled in occasional flashes of determination. Vijay Sethupathi is helped a lot by the contrast as an actor who relies more on his eyes and facial expressions than mere words to capture his heart and mind and the storm that rages around him.
merry christmas A delightfully inventive cinematic ride that uses the soundscape of 1980s Hindi cinema and an evocative and transportive color palette to create a sense of disorientation in response to the specter of loneliness and lost love – Maria and Albert both have comeback stories that bring them to where they are in the film. There is early on, before the two travel through the film’s two-and-a-half-hour runtime in search of a glimpse of redemption.
Maria and Albert ask each other questions. The screenplay, for its part, brings up the poser for the audience – is violence really better than sacrifice? Are self-inflicted wounds morally more acceptable than closure at the expense of someone who has hurt you? Could a brief encounter lead to a life-changing secret pact between two people whose paths don’t cross until one beautiful evening?
The two main characters create a mixture of serenity and mischief as they drink together at Maria’s house and then go out for a walk, trading information that helps each other break the ice and create a certain dimension. Transparency for viewers. But the latter effect is selective – it is meant to serve as a combination of obfuscation and revelation.
merry christmas The focus is firmly on Kaif and Sethupathi, but it doesn’t allow the secondary characters to slip into any insignificance, no matter how much screen time they have. It’s nothing short of a wonder that even an actor playing a role with only an almost inaudibly whispered line isn’t just a footnote. He embodies the most important turning point in the film.
From Tinnu Anand’s “neighboring uncle” who presents the boisterous Albert with home-made wine on his return, and the ‘lifeless’ look of Luke Kenny and the rakish Sanjay Kapoor as a caterer who makes his way through a seemingly overworked Christmas. -Eve – he is not a ‘caterer’ not an event manager for the next term which has yet to enter the urban lexicon – and ends with Vinay Pathak, Pratima Kannan and Ashwini Kalsekar, merry christmas Characters who leave a mark are widespread.
Curious, stimulating, gripping and gently challenging, merry christmas Everything you want a thriller to be. It bewilders but enchants.
