Parents' Guide to Merry Christmas

Parents need to know that Merry Christmas is an Indian thriller about two characters, Albert (Vijay Sethupathi) and Maria (Katrina Kaif), who try to cover up the murder of the latter's husband. The film is not really gory, violent, or sexually explicit, but it does deal with dark themes including references to intimate partner violence and child abuse. Albert admits to having killed his girlfriend in a fit of rage and claims he spent seven years in jail regretting his actions. But he is shown to still have a violent streak when he attacks a drunk man (though he ultimately controls himself this time). Maria claims that she killed her husband in order to save her child from his abuse but almost everything she says during the course of the film is a lie, leaving the audience to decide what's true and not. There are multiple references to suicide and a dead body is shown on more than one occasion. A character's infidelity is discussed as is their drug use. A character blends up some pills to drug someone. There is both a Hindi and Tamil version of the movie (with English subtitles available) that were shot simultaneously with Sethupathi and Kaif keeping their roles for both, although some of the supporting cast differs. For the purpose of this review, it was the Hindi version that was watched.

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