Movie: Mercury
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Stone Bench Films
Cast: Prabhu Deva, Sanath Reddy, Deepak Paramesh and Others
Cinematography: Tirru
Screenplay: Karthik Subbaraj
Music director: Santhosh Narayanan, Mithoon
Producers: Jayantilal Gada, Dhaval Gada, Kaarthekeyen Santhanam
Director: Karthik Subbaraj
Release date: 13 April 2018
From the director of Pizza and Jigarthanda, comes this latest experimental or let's say different film. Director Karthik Subbaraj once again comes up with a film that is not everyday fare.
Let's check out how the film's shaped up and if it manages to hold the attention of the audiences...
Story:
The film is set in a mercury factory, where five friends are at the mercy of a unknown force out to take revenge. Will the friends survive and if so, how of them will survive forms the rest of the story.
Artistes' Performances:
Prabhu Deva's performance is nothing much to write about, though his make-up does make an impact by being scary. All the actors who play the part of friends put in good performances and look convincingly scared.
Induja puts in a good performance. Ramya is seen in a guest role.
Technical Expertise:
The technicians are the real heroes of the film. Thiru's cinematography is the highlight of the film. With good lighting and angles, he gives the audience the feel of going into the middle of the factory.
Music by Santosh Narayan adds to the film's impact. At places, the music particularly increases the intensity of the scene. Art director and editor put in good work.
While the director's plot idea is good, it fails when it comes to the execution level.
Analysis:
For all those expecting a silent film, here's a little spoiler. For starters, the film is not a silent film, as was publicized prior to release. In fact, it relies heavily on background score and music, though it has no dialogues.
Closer home, it reminds one of A Film By Aravind, and it has close resemblance to the Hollywood film Don't Breathe, that released last year.
The film falls under the slasher/ horror genre flicks and deals with the issue of corporate role in environmental pollution.
Five hearing-impaired friends have a reunion after many years and end up being caught up in a problem. Though they come out of it, they are eventually forced to come back to the same factory due to some incidents.
But the director takes a very long time to establish the plot and also the bonding between the five friends.
Though the film has supernatural elements, director Karthik Subbaraj adds various elements and turns into a Home Invasion like movie. Though the sound design, production design and cinematography are good, the film nevertheless fails to thrill.
The film lacks scenes that build tension and it progresses on a monotonous track. Barring a couple of scenes, the director totally fails in getting the empathy of the audience, which works against the film.
Also, while the director has taken a lot of time in introducing the characters, their sign language does not get to the audience, which is another minus point for Mercury.
In his earlier film Pizza, Karthik manages to hold the thrill effect through out the film. However, in Mercury, he introduces a 'problem' in the fear element, just like the principal characters have a problem. But this time, he fails to carry forward his plot on planned script.
In all, while Karthik Subbaraj's idea had potential, it fails to excite and thrill the audiences, especially towards the second half. So, for all Pizza fans, this film will be a huge disappointment.
Bottomline: Silence that fails to thrill!