Sriram Raghavan on Merry Christmas, its ‘clap-worthy’ climax and why comparison with Andhadhun unfair: ‘Some haven’t taken it kindly’

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“Overall, this has been a very favourable response. There are some who have not taken it kindly that it is not Andhadhun! Anyway, that was not my intention. Some people hence find the pace ‘slow’ in the beginning. But for me, this pace was required so that it all ties in the end.”

Unlike Andhadhun, Merry Christmas is a slow-burn which invites the audience to experience it in all its glory and mood and murder. Raghavan says Merry Christmas had to be a theatrical film as the audience that way wouldn’t be distracted the way they would be watching it from the comfort of their homes.

“At home if you watch this on OTT, you may stop in 5 minutes, and may not come back again. But in a hall since you have invested your time and money, maybe people will grant me a few more minutes to set up the mood.”

Following the events of one night when two strangers discover each other in Mumbai—when it was called Bombay—Merry Christmas takes a deeply romantic turn with a rousing, inventive climax, which Raghavan says has “generated largely good response.”

“A few people who wanted, ‘Oh what the hell!’ kick, those are missing that. But this is not that kind of a film, and yet even I witnessed there were people clapping by the end of it in some cinemas that I visited! The sound of their applause is music to my ears. What else is there to ask for.”

Though Andhadhun is today considered one of Raghavan’s fastest and wackiest thrillers, the filmmaker recalled how the initial feedback said the murder in the film was coming “too late” in the narrative.

“I show my movies to a few friends to see their reactions, so that I am prepared for how the movie is going to be seen. They knew nothing about the film and were cold watching it. A bunch of them told me, ‘oh you know what the murder is happening too late in the film! It is around 30 minutes, which is too late. Can you bring it around 5 minute mark?’ I was like, ‘No! This is not that movie.’ Here, I got emboldened and wanted to push it a bit. But I am really happy,” he added.