Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi’s work in Merry Christmas has been appreciated by both the critics and the fans. Kats is rarely seen doing a very serious role that is sans any sophistication and glamour or does not include any scintillating dance numbers.
While Vijay Sethupathi is known to be a versatile actor who has been accepted in both positive and negative roles be it in Jawan and Vikram Vedha, Katrina Kaif has struggled to come out of this image of a glamour doll and establish herself as an accomplished actress. With Merry Christmas, she seems to have taken the first step towards it.
Katrina Kaif found a common point in Merry Christmas’ Maria and herself
In a scene in Merry Christmas, both Katrina and Vijay Sethupathi start dancing to Charleston music. Both can be seen dancing in abandon without any choreography with their legs and arms moving in different directions, playfully. One of the important moments of this 18-minute one-take sequence is when the May 19 actor improvises a twist as Katrina twirls around with her hair flying and laughing.
It is one of the core moments of the murder mystery and has been done very creatively by the trio of the director Sriram Raghavan, Vijay, and Katrina. Talking about the same, the Tiger 3 actress who plays a single mother of the 1980s living in Mumbai said, “It’s an expression of release, of frustration and helplessness, given what she has just done, but also of freedom. She is clearly high on adrenaline but underlying that is also an anxiety about what will happen to her now.”
Katrina Kaif also revealed how there is this common point between her and Maria. The actress said that she has always found it better to express herself through her physicality rather than words.
Recalling how she connected her pain with the serious characters that she played in Zero (Babita) and Maria in Merry Christmas, Kat said, “There is so much pain in both Babita and Maria. What I started doing is using personal pain and life experiences. I suffered as we all do, deeply, in private, in the room alone, where no one sees you. It is isolating, suffocating, and painful. In some ways it frees you. That’s the job of an artist.’
The Bollywood superstar added, “You put yourself out there all the time. But in telling other people’s stories, you are healing your own wounds. The experiences we go through connect us all knowing we are not alone in our pain.”
She also revealed that as a teenager she was very shy and underconfident but started speaking and became open only after coming into this industry.