It’s not everyday Karthik Subbaraj collaborates with a fantastic dancer-actor, Prabhudheva, While this partnership already had us intrigued, what further added to our excitement was that they were teaming up for a silent thriller. Yes, for the first time after 30 years, Indian cinema was showcasing a film with no dialogues in all languages. The teaser’s rich cinematography, Santhosh Narayanan’s haunting background score made all of us sit right up. When the trailer was launched, we were sure this was going to be a one of a kind experience. Our film critic Rajat Tripathi is watching Mercury at a press show right now. The first half is over and he has sent the first impression of the film.
Rajat says, “I absolutely loved the teaser of Mercury. I have come to the theater now to watch the film with extremely high hopes. And the movie did start on a very promising note. We are introduced to a set of 5 deaf-and-mute friends, whose lives change just because of one mistake on a fateful night. The task of headlining the cast is given to 5 very able actors. Prabhudheva is barely there in the first half. The majority of the first half is spent simply building up the premise, which scares me if that would steal time from the actual plot. Though, in the movie’s defence, it would take time for a movie with zero dialogues to build up and to put the audience in the shoes of the characters and to get used to the silence.
With literally zero dialogues in the first half, the sound design of the movie is fabulous. The lack and presence of sounds counterbalance to present a uniquely tense vibe. The camera work is also used to its full potential to heighten the tension. A few shots have already stolen my heart. Before we jump to the second half, the supposed thriller turns into a full-blown horror film.”
Stay tuned to BollywoodLife for the full movie review of Mercury.