Saturday, May 2, 2020

Mysskin's Mind sweats

 

   Each film maker's mind rolls over certain pet zones in search of new notes for insight and interpretation.The individuality of a film maker forms an integral part of his creative perceptions and mode of narration.He might succeed or fail in his mission.But his individuality will remain as his eternal asset.There are film makers who pass on abundant positive energy through their theme, story line and mode of narration.On the other hand,there are some creative individuals, who penetrate into our psyche and keep nagging our hidden side, impacting a sudden jerk on our minds' interiors.Though it becomes an acutely disturbing experience,many among us are willing to undergo that, however traumatic it could be.
  Even K.Balachander who was a specialist in family dramas and felicitous promotion of exalting characters and events,created disturbing moments for us,through his films like Thappu Thaalangal and Varumaiyin Niram Sigappu. Similarly Bala has created neatly interwoven  negative pathways, for letting his creative vehicle drive to unfamiliar zones.We know how he made those negative destinations familiar to us,through his riveting  narration of agonizing events, shown on the big screen by his extraordinary films such as Nanda,Pitha Makan,Naan Kadavul,Paradesi and Nachiyar. But unlike K.Balachander and Bala we have Mysskin who is a film maker  bent upon tracking the nuances and intricacies of morbid and blood chilling experiences,that replicate themselves through his series of narrations in films like Nandalala,Aattukuttiyum Onaayum, Pisaasu,Savara Kathi and Psycho.
     It is of course true that Mysskin started his film journey with his street side romance Chithiram Pesudhadi, that had very many unique features fresh from the oven.Naren,Bhavana, Dhandabani and Ulakanathan's song 'Vaazhameenukkum vilaangu meenukkum kalyaanam' are the exotic traits of the film,still rocking the audience memory.This was a debut film in Tamil for Bhavana,but she was found performing a kind of miracle in her role delivery. Ulakanathan's song was repeatedly heard and celebrated by music lovers. 
    Mysskin's next film Anjaadhe starring Naren,Ajmal, Prasaana and Pandiyarajan carried enormous entertainment quotient based on street shows of friendship and rivalry,besides making fresh waves through projection of villainy by actors like Pandiyarajan and Prasanna, who could hardly be imagined to be villains{ But Prasanna later grew into a chic and stylish villain without pomp and fury}.This film too had the intoxicating number"Kathaazha Kannaala Kuthaadha Nee Enna"
   Two of Mysskin's special cop stories are Yudham Sei and Thupparivalan.Both are not mere detective stories,extracting conventional dedication from men of the uniformed service.Instead they extracted enormous cerebral strain,in tracking the nature and root causes of the criminal events that the cops unusually come across and relate them to the riddling psyche of the agents of crime.Beyond the suspense element, it is the morbidity thrust of the crimes,that made them challenging not only for the cops but also for the audience witnessing the gory narration.
  There is always a tremendous amount of interpolation in Mysskin's way of story telling that makes actors fade into characters and characters dissolve into the ocean of the human psyche. That is why we remember Mysskin's films,more than the actors who played the protagonists.I am sure both Cheran{Yutham Sei} and Vishal as well as Prasanna{Thupparivalan}would have willingly undergone the ordeal of losing themselves as actors,in the characters who in turn have passed on as mind blowers.
   Mysskin who is said to be an avid reader of books,especially those of the famous Russian novelist Count Leo Tolstoy,could be called the master narrator of street events.With his unique perception of street dynamism based on solid psychological and supernatural moorings, Mysskin evolves the volume and velocity of his mode of narration of events and characters,on the big screen.
    There is a persistent throw of darkness both physical and psychological,governing the course of events taking place in Mysskin's films.He also opens the doors for Christian musings,over the conception and development of his themes and story lines.Physically and mentally challenged people,homeless street dwellers and beggars,find a place in his focus on the agony of the under privileged and the down trodden sections of humanity and the amount of crime bound mischief, born of the deprivation of the right to claim a space,both for their body and mind .
   Travelling on the darker pathways with single minded devotion,Mysskin traces lone souls with their specific pangs and pushes them into limelight,with their sagas of sufferings.Psycho is one such film dealing with the mental anguishes of a boy put to needless punitive measures and unsympathetic instructional approaches, adopted by the defective side of the educational system.When a victim of maltreatment turns into a criminal with  retrospective pressures on the mind,the respective individual becomes a threat to society.Wronged individuals always become doubly armed to wrong,with vengeance and virulence.
     Mysskin is a specialist in telling crime stories.It does not mean that he is trying to justify crimes.Starting from petty street crimes narrated in films like Chihiram Pesudhadi, Anjaadhe, and Mukamoodi he moved on to subtleties in narration of thrillers,with a riper comprehension of the intricacies hovering around the acts of crime,as narrated in Onaayum Aattukuttiyum and Psycho.
  Mysskin's Pisaasu was intensely supernatural, reflecting the truth that sometimes  motiveless acts of crime could be blessed by the victim of such a crime,transforming into a benevolent ghost.This is because the person who gets involved in an accident, is under an illusion that somebody else has committed it and he is struggling to save the victim of the accident,who dies during the act of saving.The victim is a little girl who turns into a ghost, and understands the psychological predicament of her killer.Hence the ghost does not harm him.Later when the hero realizes that he was the cause of the accident, a deep sense of guilt and compunction pushes him to commit suicide.But the ghost saves him by cremating itself.
   In addition to being a film maker,Mysskin donned the the protagonist role of a mentally retarded adult in Nandalaala and as the baddie Wolf Edward, in Onaayum Aattukuttiyum with guilt dominated  patterns of behaviour. Mysskin has also acted in his films Super Delux,Savara Kathi and Suttu Pidikka Utharavu. In Mysskin's purview, crime and punishment or sin and retribution frequently get juxtaposed for reformation and atonement,depending upon the the psychological journey undergone by the respective criminal or sinner.
   In other words,for Mysskin,acts of crime/sin should be judged more by their reasons than the actual events of crime/sin.May be Mysskin believes that the untold stories of the mind have to be taken into consideration,while assessing the actual revelations of the mind.It is in this respect,Mysskin surpasses other film makers and their ways of handling the highly creative medium of cinema.
    The distinct directorial ability of Mysskin travels into the mind of man,looks upon its good and bad sides and deals with their consequences,by relating them to a precise psychological ambiance.His characters are controlled by the inner psyche as much as by the external happenings.As a director, Mysskin seems to share a little bit of the mindset of Bala,who focuses more on external crimes and their impact on the victims.Bala's negativity in perception and narration,is a product of the actualities that prevail and are visible.Whereas Mysskin's negative trajectory is a far deeper phenomenon, passing through the barriers of the mind and creating psychological protocols for stranger,vitally influential vibrations.Streets,Orphans,Physically or mentally challenged individuals,nuisance lovers,musical relief promoters and even dogs and pigs,fill the shots of Mysskin one after the other.
   On the whole, it is not only a different world but also a difficult one that Mysskin creates for the grasp of the common man.With his indecipherable mind sweats, Mysskin  is a rare find for Tamil cinema and he makes the Tamil film industry rarer than ever.
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