One of the most talented and influential young filmmakers in South Asia these days is undoubtedly Tamil Nadu's Karthik Subbaraj. From his debut feature, the endlessly entertaining twisty thriller Pizza in 2012, to his masterful meta mob movie, Jigarthanda in 2014, and now into production with his own production house, Stone Bench Films, he's been leading the charge of a new breed of Tamil filmmakers who have transformed the commerical marketplace and made Tamil cinema a respected brand around the country and even the world.
Today he and Stone Bench Films dropped the teaser for his upcoming thriller, Mercury, starring multi-hyphenate Prabhudeva. Prabhudeva has most recently been crowned as one of Bollywood's most successful directors following box office smashes like Rowdy Rathore, but before that he was already oen of the country's most in demand dancers and choreographers, a talent he has not left behind as his two dance films, ABCD and ABCD 2 have also been big hits.
Mercury has been on the minds of Tamil film fans since Subbaraj first announced the project as a silent thriller, which is a fascinating idea that hasn't been done on a large scale in Tamil cinema for a long time. For those of us wondering what that looks like, today's teaser gives a bit of a hint at the tone of the film, which delightfully hearkens back to his first success in Pizza.
Karthik Subbaraj was also recently picked to direct the next film from international superstar, Rajinikanth, following his two films currently in the pipe, Kaala and 2.0. As he goes from strength to strength, it's become very obvious to those who pay attention that Subbaraj is a talent to watch, a filmmaker whose flaws are even fascinating. Mercury has me really curious, and with an April 13th release date, I don't have much longer to wait. I say bring it on! Check out the teaser below.