Mercury

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.

#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.

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.

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.

Overall movie was good But I don't like the climax