For a silent film, Mercury's soundtrack has enough going on. Unfortunately, that is the only thing going on here as you end up being sermoned by director-writer Karthik Subbaraj about the hazards of mercury poisoning in what feels like a contrived thriller at best. Five youngsters - all both deaf and dumb - are out partying at a farmhouse. It is the adolescent nature in them that drives them to go on a quick outing in the middle of the night. What starts like a merry trip with two of them even introducing their love for each other comes to a screeching halt when they find a dead body (Prabhu Deva). Because none of them can hear, the further proceedings in the film become a bit challenging to follow. With Subbaraj throwing flashbacks at you, there's a constant sense of apprehension in the narrative, which even the smartest viewer will find slightly annoying. The use of ambient score earns brownie points here, but this is no Pushpak Vimana (1987) or Raja Harishchandra (1913) which Mercury boasts of being inspired from. This thriller has been meticulously plotted so as to turn it into a silent film, which is how dictionaries around the world define the term "gimmick", even in cinema parlance. Even as a well-shot thriller, it does suffer from huge plotholes and conceptual issues because at one point you have Deva acting like a victim of mercury poisoning (the main theme) and at other he has shades of paranormal activity. The hybrid may be true but writer Subbaraj hardly hints at their combination, instead always focusing on how the camera captures the actors' emotive faces or forcing the audience stoop at their seats awaiting a jump-scare. Mercury starts off well but quickly goes downhill to become a boring stash of a soundtrack-driven drivel. With unintentional humor scattered all over the place and amateur performances by the lead actors, there is only so much to appreciate in this thriller. Which is not enough to justify a ticket price especially when there are better films out there. TN.
