Mercury - Blatant Scream
Karthik Subbaraj one of the most promising new age directors has come up with this novel experiment in which he tries to stitch together various genres in one episodic screenplay to a less flattering result.
Five deaf mute friends Indhuja, Sananth Reddy, Deepak Paramesh, Shashank Purushothaman and Anish Padmanaban are on a reunion tour in Kodaikanal where they drink and make merry. It happens to be the girl's birthday and one of the boys who has his sights on her is raring to propose and is waiting for the opportune time. The friends decide to go for a wild night's ride when they accidentally ram into a man (Prabhu Deva) and seemingly kill him. What happens in the aftermath filled with horror and tragedy is what the rest of the screenplay is all about.
Indhuja has the meatiest role in 'Mercury' and like her debut 'Meyaadha Maan' she impresses as the deaf mute with her expressive face and body language. The pre-climax where she communicates with Prabhu Deva and the climax when she goes to meet Remya Nambesan belong to her. Prabhu Deva, the actor whose body and face cannot stay still even for a second has come out of his comfort zone for this role reminiscent of Stephen Lang in 'Don't Breathe' (A few sequences in the film too borrow from the Freddie Alavarez film). Though his exaggerated screams become repetitive he gets the chance to emote in the pre-climax with Indhuja which is his standout effort. Sananth Reddy is the known face among the boys but credit to all four of them for nailing their characters to near perfection which is a big plus for the film. Ramya Nambesan puts in a cameo looking good and Gajaraj makes his presence felt as the guest house caretaker.
Karthik Subbaraj touch is evident in the long takes and the place where Prabhu Deva's disability is revealed to the protagonists is well executed. The dilapidated factory setting is well detailed and authentic.
On the downside the plot which pits deaf and mute people against a blind man could have been exploited better to serve the screenplay. The five protagonists are one dimensional and possess very little for the audiences to root for them. Given the reveal of who (or what) Prabhu Deva really is, his blind act is highly questionable and further weakens the already shaky screenplay. The subtitles and the non sync background score defeat the very purpose of making a silent film. The 'Mercury' poisoning subplot is superficial and the message is hardly driven home to the average viewer.
Santhosh Narayanan's background score will surely be pleasant to listen to as an audio but it turns out to be jarring in most places in the screenplay and hampers it. The one place it does work out is when Sananth's musical gift to Indhuja starts playing at the wrong time and Santhosh enhances that in the scene. The biggest plus of 'Mercury ' is the cinematography by S. Tirru who uses a green hue to amplify the mercury theme, and a surreal brightness to the flashbacks. On the whole his images are picture perfect. Vivek Harshan compliments Karthik Subbaraj's penchant for long takes by making the flow as smooth as possible without any blemishes. Karthik Subbaraj as usual has extracted stellar performances from his cast and his detailing in the scenes and execution stand out. However the writing is a big let down and leaves on with that feeling that the film could have been much better than what is on offer.
Verdict : Go for it if you fancy an experimental film with uniformly good performances and novelty in story telling.
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