In 1980s
Bombay, Albert Arogyasami returns home after seven years on Christmas Eve. He goes to a restaurant, where he bumps into a man who seems to be running away from his date. Later, Albert meets the man's date, Maria, and informs her about the situation. Maria is with her mute daughter, Annie, who seems to be the reason the man ran away. They spend some time together, and Maria invites Albert to celebrate Christmas at her house, to which he agrees. At Maria's house, she puts Annie to bed and spends time with Albert. They dance together and share some wine. Albert admires a Christmas tree in Maria's living room and attaches to it an ornament that he bought earlier in the day (and also shown Annie). Maria then invites Albert to take a stroll for more fun, and they explore the neighborhood festivities, forming a bond between them. Before leaving, Maria leaves a note informing her husband that she is out with a friend. A few hours later, Maria and Albert return to her house, only to find a dead body sitting in the chair. Maria identifies the body as her husband, Jerome. The body appears to have been shot in the heart, with the gun still in his hand. Maria's earlier note is found crumpled near him. Maria tries to call the police, but Albert stops her. Albert confesses ruefully that he had just been released from prison that day after serving a seven-year sentence for the murder of his lover, Rosie. He warns that his presence will make the situation worse, as the police will likely suspect that he and Maria conspired to kill Jerome. Maria is shocked, and implores Albert to leave her house immediately. Albert leaves, asking Maria to handle the situation. Before leaving, Albert attempts to erase all evidence of his presence, such his fingerprint on the glasses etc. However, the Christmas tree no longer has the ornament he attached earlier. Albert doesn't go home immediately. Instead, he stops at a tea stall nearby. To his surprise, he sees Maria, who should be waiting for the police at her house, rushing off somewhere. He follows her to a church, where Maria is again at the church. Maria fakes fainting, prompting a fellow attendee at the church, Ronnie, who is attracted to Maria, to offer help. Ronnie intends to have a connection with her by assisting her. Albert, still determined to uncover the truth, also offers help. Together, Ronnie and Albert (acting as a stranger) take Maria back to her house, where Albert is shocked to find that Jerome's dead body and all evidence of the crime have disappeared. The house now looks completely normal. Albert again sees his ornament. on the tree. Ronnie intentionally leaves his wallet on Maria's couch, secretly looking forward to an excuse to return later. At this point, Maria claims she left something at the church and needs to retrieve it. Ronnie, wanting to pursue Maria offers to drop Albert off on the way. Albert, pretending to go back to his house instead goes to Maria's manor, where he is stunned to again see Jerome's dead body, and again, no ornament on the tree. Soon Maria and Ronnie arrive to an identical crime scene from hours ago. Maria, again reacting surprised implores Ronnie to call the police. However, she sees Albert in the house who she pushes out of the back door. Ronnie calls the police, suggesting to Maria that they leave Albert's name out of the story as he only plans to be in the city for day, and it would be unfair to drag him into the mess. Meanwhile an escaping Albert is forced to retreat back into Maria's building as he sees the police outside. However, he stumbles upon an entrance of a different floor. While Maria and Ronnie give their statement to the police on a different floor, Albert begins to realizes what has been happening: Maria has two identical apartments — one above with Jerome's dead body and one below that is clean of any crime. Maria first invites guests to the clean house, where nothing appears suspicious. Then she takes the guests out and returns to the house above, where Jerome's dead body is. Since the two houses are only one floor apart, and due to impeccable planning of the interior decor, most ordinary humans will not notice they are being taken to another exactly identical apartment, particularly since they always take the elevator, where Maria typically creates a distraction. Most guests would think they are and they were, in the same house. This creates a perfect alibi for Maria, as any guest would confidently testify that Maria was with them the entire time when Jerome was found dead. Once the police and Ronnie depart, Maria enters her fake apartment with a chainsaw to begin destroying evidence of her duplicity. She is once again shocked to see Albert and attempts to attack him. He on the other hand calms her down and offers to help her destroy the evidence. While participating in heavy-duty destruction, they also uncover Ronnie's wallet. While Maria suggests they burn it, Albert offers to drop in the Church lost and found, unknowing that Ronnie had intentionally slipped the wallet into the sofa crevice upon his initial visit. The next day Albert is called to the police station where he is interrogated about the previous night's events. He also leaves a paper swan on the inspector's desk before entering the interrogation room. Intermittently, Maria is also called in to give her confession. While she initially leaves Albert out of her statement, seeing the swan (Albert's signature which he had also made for her the night before), Maria mentions that she forgot to mention that another man also helped her in the Church. As Albert exits the interrogation room, he sees both Maria and Ronnie in the station. When Ronnie is asked to give his statement, he confesses to intentionally leaving his wallet in the house, and suspects that a thief may have entered the house and killed Jerome in an attempt to flee. Albert is asked for his release papers during which he accidentally pulls out Ronnie's wallet from his pocket but quickly hides it before anyone notices. When all three members are released to leave, Annie suddenly is able to speak once again, announcing that Santa (Albert) had given her the Christmas ornament. Maria hugs Annie in glee. The police are shocked, realizing there might be a conspiracy involving Maria. In a last minute twist, Albert comes forward and presents Ronnie's wallet to the police, with a guilty looking facial expression. He also pulls put a ring from his pocket, presumably the one that he intended to give to his ex-girlfriend Rosie, offering some motive for his killing of Jerome to remove attention away from Maria. The film ends as Maria instead puts her hand out for Albert to place the ring on her finger. Albert happily obliges and takes a seat on the suspects bench. == Cast ==