Mercury Review: The silence here is exhilarating, and worth experiencing

Cast: Prabhu Deva, Sananth Reddy, Deepak Paramesh, Shashank Purushotham, Anish Padmanabhan, Indhuja and Gajaraj

Rating: 3.5/5

What are films without dialogues? Would you understand if the actors used sign language than that of words? These thoughts would cross your mind if you watch the trailer of Prabhu Deva’s upcoming film Mercury. Written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj, Mercury is a story based on the Kodaikanal mercury poisoning incident, which happened due to the contamination in a thermometer making factory located at the hill station.

I’m not going to reveal the story, but here’s a gist.

Five friends head to the hill station to celebrate a birthday, and after a party, they head out for a drive in the woods, where an unfortunate incident due to sheer negligence, which eventually leads to a series of events they had never imagined. How do they cope up with the loss and what happens to them over the next few days of the incident, is Mercury.

The best part of the film is Karthik’s brave attempt to showcase his work without dialogues. A silent thriller, as it says, Mercury is a well-executed film with thrives largely on the haunting and intriguing score by Santhosh Narayanan.

As the film begins, it does take time for one to register the sign language and the communication, but slowly it becomes easy. The first half of the film keeps you hooked with the story, but ends at a point where one would feel if almost everything in the story is revealed. But no, you’ll be proved wrong for this guess. However, the second half of the film seems a tad bit long but has some surprises. Patience and attention to the screen will play the key aspects of the experience here.

It would be unfair to give credit to a specific person in the cast here. Mercury shines because of the team effort. Prabhu Deva and all the other actors have performed equally well, and so has the team behind the screens. The location is beautiful and the music keeps you alert throughout. There are moments where your heartbeats would race, and you’d have goosebumps. But what hampers the film is the edit. The film could have been shorter and to the point. Further, the relevance of ‘Mercury’ in the film does not reflect as much as the makers would have expected it to.

To sum it up, Mercury is an experience worth trying. Karthik and the team have tried to present something unusual, with a hope and Mercury delivers most of it. For many, silence usually relates to peace, but this time it is scary!