Merry Christmas’ India movie: Sriram Raghavan delivers a sumptuous slice of crime thanks to a fabulous Vijay Sethupathi.

The unlikely pair of Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi shine in this noirish tale of a long night where the crux is more engaging than the climax.

Two decades after he emerged on the scene with Ek Hasina Thi, Sriram Raghavan mounts yet another delectable tale of a charming woman accosted by a stranger.

The damsel has grown into a mother and this time, not only the man, she also harbours a secret. As they get along on Christmas Eve, we get some melancholy-tinged witty conversations on unfulfilled love and unmitigated heartache, but the slow-burn gradually combusts our attention leaving plenty of soot behind.

An adaptation of popular French writer Frederic Dard’s novel Bird In A Cage, the story of a long night unravels in Mumbai when it was called Bombay. Albert (Vijay Sethupathi), who has returned to the city after a long time, is mourning the death of his mother. To get over the gloom, as he tries to immerse himself in the festive spirit, he comes across an enchanting woman called Maria (Katrina Kaif) at a restaurant.

She is with her daughter and big teddy bear, but the father is conspicuous by his absence. Albert, like us, feels there is something wrong about the woman but still gets irresistibly drawn towards her. With nothing to lose, perhaps, his past makes him feel smart.

When she calls him home, a second time, Albert feels his night is going to be merry... only to find himself caught in a cage.

Raghavan, like his spiritual guru Alfred Hitchcock, loves to let out as much information to the audience as possible and still befuddle us with the quirks of fate. Perhaps, that’s why his films have great repeat value. You keep wanting to go back to the crime scene to find the needle that you missed.