Merry Christmas [Hindi] (2024)

It's almost easier to describe Merry Christmas as a neo-noir that serves as a throwback to American noir Christmas films of the '40s and '50s, as well as Hitchcock's mysteries, and leave it at that. Only doing so ignores the fact it's an Indian film set in Mumbai and filmed simultaneously in Hindi and Tamil and based on a French crime novel called "Le Monte-charge" which was previously adapted into a 1962 film called, "Paris Pick-Up" (which I'm absolutely adding to my watchlist, despite a sinking suspicion I'll never find a copy).

All of which is to say the movie is an intricate web of references and homages spanning continents and eight decades, some of which I'm qualified to discuss and others... not so much. The movie is dedicated to a famous Indian director, and dialogue in the movie itself references what I assume are Indian films inspiring Merry Christmas - I'm sure there are layers I'm missing because I lack a background in any of that. Though, for what it's worth, that didn't stop me from enjoying this and following the Hitchcockian storyline. I'm sure there's a great deal U.S. audiences will miss, but it's still absolutely accessible to anyone willing to read a few subtitles.

Which... okay, side-note to the side-note of the side-note I was on: there are a bunch of versions of this available. My understanding is the movie was shot in both Hindi and Tamil - as in, each scene was shot in each language, meaning there are literally at least two cuts out of the movie, each using different takes with presumably at least slightly different dialogue. As the title of the review states, I went with the Hindi version, and - in case anyone's wondering - I do feel a little bad not having the time to watch and compare both.

But English-speaking viewers won't have to read too hard, because a significant amount of dialogue is in that language, as well. The main characters incorporate English words, phrases, and even sentences into their speech.

Getting back to the movie, Merry Christmas is simultaneously a psychological suspense and engrossing love story. It incorporates more than a few bits of comedy (quite well, I'll add - the movie's funny when it wants to be), but never in a way that breaks the tone or sacrifices tension. I'm far from the first to note this, but the movie follows Hitchcock's blueprint pretty closely. The performances are great, as is the direction. The cinematography is also particularly effective at evoking a sense of unease. If you want to nitpick, there are a couple shots of burning CG paper cranes that are a bit silly. Also, the last act was overlong for my tastes, and the resolution is pushing the bounds of absurdity, though - to be fair - you could say the same about most of Hitchcock's movies.

Aside from some brief flashbacks, the film is entirely set on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. This seems to be taken from the source material, though it's somewhat notable those elements haven't been toned down. The main characters are Christian, and holiday decorations, celebrations, and traditions in the area this is set are presented as being pretty close to those you'd expect in western countries.

Beyond that, the holidays are used in ways American viewers will be familiar with. The movie uses the lights and music to create a sort of magical world conducive to romance, it plays with religious connotations surrounding a parent's love for their child and themes surrounding redemption, and - of course - it makes use of the juxtaposition between the season and violence that's been a key ingredient of American movie entertainment from adaptations of The Three Godfathers to holiday noir through '80s action. It doesn't do anything particularly new with any of these tropes, but it executes all of them well.

Before I get to the plot synopsis (which I'm saving for last on the assumption most of you don't want to read it, anyway) I want to reiterate that this one is worth checking out for anyone who enjoys mysteries, noir, and suspense. It's a great deal of fun and fascinating as an Indian take on an American (or arguably French) subgenre you wouldn't expect to translate anywhere near this effectively.

The movie's two leads are Albert (Vijay Sethupathi) and Maria (Katrina Kaif), with Albert being the POV character. He's just returned home on Christmas Eve after being away for a significant amount of time, during which his mother passed away. He goes out that evening to try and distract himself from everything he's going through. While there, he encounters Maria and is instantly smitten.

Maria, we learn, is spending time with her daughter, who's mute due to trauma inflicted on her by her abusive father. Albert opens up to Maria and tells her about his mother and how he's still in love with a woman he ran away with seven years ago but who has since passed away.

They briefly go to Maria's apartment, where Albert spends some time in the living room, which is decorated for Christmas. While Maria steps away to put her daughter to bed, Albert places an ornament he purchased earlier on the tree. Maria returns and assures Albert her daughter will be fine while they go out again. They then share a magical Christmas Eve in town before circling back to Maria's home, where they discover her husband dead of an apparent suicide in the room they were in earlier.

Instead of calling the police, Albert freezes. He tells Maria he can't be there when the police arrive, because they'll conclude he and Maria conspired to kill her husband. It turns out that the reason he just got back in town is he was in prison for murdering the woman he told her about earlier.

Maria tells him to leave at once. Before he does, he goes around the room and wipes anything he touched with a cloth to remove his fingerprints. He goes to the tree to recover the ornament he placed earlier, but it seems to have vanished. Eventually he leaves and starts wandering around the city. Then he spots Maria and her daughter going out, similar to how they'd been when he first encountered them. He follows them to a midnight mass at Church, where Maria seems to faint. She effectively picks up Ronnie, a married man who steps in to rescue her in the hopes his chivalry will be rewarded. Albert helps, as well, and the two men bring Maria and her daughter home, though Maria pretends not to recognize Albert. She brings both men back to her apartment, where her deceased husband has seemingly vanished. The ornament, however, is back on the tree. Albert is pressured to leave, though he sticks around the area as Maria and Ronnie leave to recover a watch she supposedly lost in the church.

While they're gone, Albert investigates and makes a few discoveries. He also finds Maria's daughter awake in bed and gives the child the ornament. Eventually Maria and Ronnie get back and "discover" her husband's body again. Ronnie hides out on another floor of the building while the police gather clues and seal the apartment.

The way Maria's pulling this slight-of-hand trick off is she's secretly built a replica of her living room, complete with holiday decorations, functional bar, and more, on an unoccupied floor of the complex where she lives. She originally brought Albert to the fake room, left him alone for a few minutes in which she killed her drugged husband, then circled back with him later to discover the body, assuming he'd be the perfect alibi. When that didn't work, she went out and repeated the con with Ronnie.

Albert is fascinated. Rather than turning her in, he helps her with the next stage of the plan, dismantling and burning the fake living room to destroy any evidence of what she'd done. In the process, however, they find Ronnie's wallet. Rather than burn this, Albert resolves to drop it off at the church lost and found later.

The next day, however, the police round everyone up, including Albert after Ronnie tells them about his assistance. At first, it seems like everything will be fine, but Ronnie mentions his missing wallet. It turns out he knew where it was - he hid it in Maria's "living room" so he'd have a pretext for returning later, only it was gone when they returned to find her husband. In his mind (and the minds of the police), this implies a thief must have broken in, stolen the wallet, and murdered Maria's husband. If they find the wallet, they'll have the killer.

Of course, Albert has the wallet in his pocket. Once again, it seems like they'll still get away with it, since the police don't suspect him enough to bother searching him. As far they can tell, he was just randomly present at an earlier time. It's Maria's daughter who inadvertently fingers him when she's prompted to start speaking again at the most inopportune moment, referring to Albert as "Santa" in a fairly elaborate callback to the scene they shared. This seeming Christmas miracle gets the police's attention, as the timeline they'd been working from left no opening for the child to have encountered him, so they realize something's up.

Albert knows, as well. He pulls Ronnie's wallet from his pocket and hands it to him, effectively confessing to the murder of Maria's husband. He also removes an engagement ring he'd been carrying since killing its original intended recipient in a blind rage and gives this to Maria. This resolves a few character threads from earlier, as he'd told Maria he'd get rid of the ring when he forgot the woman he'd killed - essentially, he'd forgiving himself for killing a woman he loved by protecting another woman he loves by taking the blame for a murder she committed. Maria is clearly heartbroken, but her hands are tied - she needs to let Albert take the blame, so that she can look after her daughter.

It's all ridiculously silly, of course, but the tone consistently sells it with the help of the holiday elements and establishing character beats. The movie falls short of being truly emotionally resonant, but - like the classics it's emulating - it manages to work as a sweeping, suspenseful melodrama (in the traditional sense of the term, not the derogatory one). It's an engaging, exciting mystery with fun twists and a satisfying resolution. It's not for everyone, but if that sounds like enjoyable holiday entertainment, consider this a recommendation.