Mercury

MERCURY: I felt the storyline is very vague, too many loose ends as well. Lots of Hows '?' .. The story doesn't keep you engaged, also draggy. Few portions that needs to be highlighted where just passing moments & portions that should've been short, were very long.

I appreciate the intention though, targeting the corporate hassles that affect the environment & ultimately human-lives. But this could've been easily dealt with through a short-film, if it's going to be a feature film, then audience like me, expect little more clarity, logic & story that justifies the 2 hours run-time.

#MercuryMovie is a hushed horror film, but it doesnt make your hair stand on end. A group of friends, 4 males n 1 female, meet in an isolated house. A late night drive results in a man getting killed. While trying to dump his body, they enter an abandoned factory where they get slain, one by one. Since there r no dialogues, sound plays a crucial role in the film. Prabudeva impresses, as the revenge-seeking dead man. His makeup is good. Performances r decent. Not a prodigious film, but worth watching as an experimentation. Rating 3/5.

Mercury (2018):

With three acclaimed films in his filmography,Karthik Subbaraj became a favorite for movie-buffs all over India.He once again comes up with a film that is not everyday fare. Karthik Subbaraj once again proves he is gutsy and audacious enough to try his hands at a silent film especially to a modern tech-savvy audience who get restless when a scene goes silent.So how is it?

Plot:

The film is set amidst a group of five deaf and dumb friends who accidentally kill a man(Prabhu Deva) during a road journey. Appalled with their ghostly crime, they cremate the body in a nearby forest. But to their bad luck, the dead man comes live and makes their life hell. Well, how does all this happen forms the entire crux of the film.

My Review:

Surprisingly,Mercury is the weakest in the terms of Subbaraj's writing.While his previous films have terrific writing with intense drama,Mercury is just the regular Hollywood plot but this is where Subbaraj showcased all his direction skills.We can see his mark in every scene of the film.

Disability in films is generally an underdog trait. But here, Subbaraj spends a languid opening twenty minutes establishing their chemistry so that it's not sympathy but empathy that will come to define their circumstances. Even their sign language is shown throughout the film without any subtitles.

This film totally belongs to technical departments who gave their 100% output.Santhosh Narayanan's music elevates the intensity of the scenes put on display. The violins used as part of the BGM, in particular, are beautiful and sounds soothing to the ear.National-award winning cinematographer Tirru is one of the silent heroes of the film. The shot-divisions, camera movement, and the lighting not only set the mood but also set the scary mood.

Performances are good.Indhuja is the show stealer of the film.Rest of the cast is good.

So,Mercury is worth watching for Subbaraj's direction and its technical excellence.

My Rating 7/10

Karthik Subbaraj begins with the routine horror built up which has a strong effect over the impactful events. While unfolding at somewhat leisure pace which keeps stimulating the horror effect inconsistently. The sound heavy silent thriller becomes chilling once the thrilling entity enters, we start absorbing and the need of "silence". Although, the scares are less - what builds up scarily and eerily is Karthik's effective handling of the sensory modalities - deprecating us to breathe for a while. The unique conflict between senses - sight and sound trembles into a thrilling cat and mouse game.

It's definitely a brilliantly-crafted thriller but that's not essential. The major tonal shift is abrupt which throws us off the dark track while Karthik tries to get hold of social theme - environmentalism. Nevertheless, it's commendably rendered for the effect along with fine bunch of cast including the gutsy Prabhu Deva.

"Mercury" is a noisy thriller at it's best though marketed as a silent thriller film, it makes us sick with the toxic green hue and Karthik's fearless and gutsy filmmaking sails safely through this interesting cinematic venture.

I think this is the first Indian film since Pushpak to use no dialogues in it, although here it is because all the major characters are mute and deaf. The sign language was not completely comprehensible for those who doesn't know it without subtitles but relating to the context it was not that hard to follow. The plot is a very simple horror movie setup but the execution is impressive. The cinematography, the steampunk look, use of shadows etc were brilliant. The atmosphere was really perfect and the sound design is also spectacular, especially the blind v deaf scenes. There's lot of inspirations that can be found here but even when there is no dialogues and the whole setting that can give an other worldly feel at the end it shows how much of an Indian film it still is. For some that must have been a negative but it wasn't that bad in my opinion.