Santhosh Narayanan says music is a mode of communication in Karthik Subbaraj's Mercury

Director Karthik Subbaraj’s upcoming film Mercury is a departure from his usual style of filmmaking in several ways. At its very core, the Prabhudeva-starrer is a thriller, a genre that is considered to be Subbaraj’s territory. But it is also a silent film which makes a lot of its aspects — including the music — even more interesting. Composer Santhosh Narayanan, who has belted out hits for films like Kabali, Bairavaa and Kodi,  has composed another compelling mix of songs for the upcoming film.

Since there are no dialogues in the film, music is the backbone of communication and personifies the characters in the story. Speaking about music being especially integral to the film, Narayanan says, “Music is the most essential part of any film, but when it comes to Mercury it actually became a medium of communication. Mercury being a silent film needed a strong background score that could give you chills down the spine.”

He further adds, “Since there are no dialogues in the film I had to be careful about every minute detail like tonality, atmosphere and the story. I wanted to justify the story with my music. It was a great learning experience as Karthik and I used to have detailed conversations about it. A movie like Mercury is a once in a generation opportunity for me. It doesn’t come easily to a music director and I am privileged to have got this opportunity.”

Mercury also stars Sananth Reddy, Deepak Parmesh, Shashank Puroshotham, Anish Padmanabhan, Indhuja Ravishandran, Gajaraj SP and Ramya Nambeesan in pivotal roles. The film is slated for a 13 April release.