MEETING MYSSKIN
A few weeks ago, I was part of a panel discussion organised by LV Prasad Film and TV Academy. The topic was ‘Locating South Indian Cinema in an International Context,’ and I had the opportunity to speak to fellow panelist and filmmaker Mysskin. He graciously invited me to a screening, at his office, of ‘Nandalala,’ which has been awaiting release for a long time now. We spoke for a while after the film, and here’s the conversation.
SEP 12, 2010 – Congratulations on a truly unique film, with a visual and narrative grammar quite new to Tamil cinema. How did Nandalala come about?
After Chitiram Pesuthadi, and before writing Anjaathey, I wanted to write a very sincere movie. I wanted to narrate a story from my personal life. I thought I’d imagine what would happen if a mentally challenged man, someone almost like a child, and another kid went on a journey in search of their mothers. A lot of people think they’re doing the right thing, the good thing, when they entrust their mentally challenged kids to asylums. But that’s not always the case. I also wanted to talk about that. Gradually, it became a road movie.
The obvious question, of course, is whether you were influenced by Takeshi Kitano’s Kikujiro.
I had seen Kikujiro a long time ago, even before I made Chitiram Pesuthadi. It reminded me of something from my life. I have impressions from Kikujiro, and a few scenes are an homage to Kitano. But I wrote Nandalala very individually. I was inspired mainly by an image from my life from when I was very young. Perhaps I made the kid in my movie a six-year-old because I witnessed this image when I was six. Nandalala is a very personal movie, and after finishing it, I felt very composed. I do not think of it as a failure even though it hasn’t been released for so long.
When did you complete Nandalala?
I wrote it after the release of Chitiram Pesuthadi. I waited for a while, but when no one was interested, I wrote Anjaathey. I finished that film and returned to Nandalala, with myself in the lead because no one else wanted to do it. Ilayaraja finished the background score, and the next day he began work on Naan Kadavul. So it was finished perhaps a year-and-a-half ago? But as I said, I don’t think of it as a failure. Movies like Nandalala give meaning to life.
There’s a self-conscious and yet enormously affecting monologue, from a prostitute, who talks about losing count of the number of men who fell on top of her, and about the man who saw the mole on her breast and was reminded of his mother. Did you worry that your choices might put off the regular mainstream audience?
I knew that this monologue was like walking on a dagger. I know it’s a risk, but I want to take that risk. Even with Chitiram Pesuthadi, I wanted to do something different. Boy meets girl, and by interval, her father has agreed to this match. So what could be the conflict now? I thought it would be interesting if such a nice father, such a beautiful human being, visits a prostitute’s house. That’s a shade of him, that’s a necessity for him. Many producers refused to touch the film, saying that the audiences wouldn’t accept this idea. Then they said the audience wouldn’t accept the paedophile villain of Anjaathey. But both films were big hits, and after that I stopped caring. I think movies should give satisfaction, and if you make a sincere project, I think it will go to the people.
I have a kuthu paattu in Yudham Sei, my film currently in postproduction. I know people will like it. But beyond that, there has to be a bigger picture. I want to walk on that tightrope, otherwise it’s not interesting for me as a filmmaker. I should respect the movie. That dialogue you mentioned, I worked on it for a month. That scene with the old woman and the flowers in Anjaathey, I wept while writing it. Even Mani Sir asked me how I wrote it. I don’t know. All I can say is that I go deeply into the unconscious and then try to work my way out. I don’t write a scene outline. I don’t know what my next scene is going to be. That way, I can explore my unconscious more with greater freedom, and my characters behave in ways that surprise me. I think this is most sincere way to write.
You have these traditionally modelled heroes like Naren’s cop in Anjaathey, and yet they’re filled with flaws. You seem like to like imperfect characters.
I have never seen a noble character in real life. If you lock Mike Tyson up in a room and throw a snake in, he will shit his pants. So at that moment, you cannot call him a brave fighter. The character changes according to the situation. You cannot define a character the way people do in real life, where we meet someone and instantly say he’s such a nice guy. After five years, we may discover that he’s a rapist or a paedophile. On the other hand, even within a rapist, there may be deep reserves of humanity. Fixing characters with specific traits makes them boring. I like to push my characters into extremes.
So do you fix your characters and loop your narrative around them, or do you have a story idea that then gives rise to the characters? It’s probably a mix of both.
Like any assistant director trying to make his first film – I assisted Vincent Selva on Youth and Jithan – I wanted to reassure my producer with Chitiram Pesuthadi. So I made a love story. Anjaathey came about because I have a friend who’s a cop, an honest cop. Before becoming a cop, he led a very casual life, and I thought it would be interesting to show how he gets to understand his duty. Nandalala, as I said, is developed from events in my own life. As for Yudham Sei, I was chased by an image for nearly ten days, that of an old woman waiting at court for a verdict. And I decided to go in reverse, to discover why she was there.
I read someplace that only in the third act should I stumble upon my premise or theme. I should say, “Oh this is what I meant to write!” The core of Nandalala is the scene with Nasser [who plays a lorry driver who, asleep at his wheel, brings about some sort of deux ex machina]. If a man can do so much good while sleeping, imagine how much good one can do while awake. After writing that scene, I finally felt I understood Nandalala.
Another accidental discovery occurred while I was shooting the scene with the girl on a tractor. I told my cinematographer to compose the shot with the tree in the frame, and I kept walking into the field, talking on the phone. After a while, I suddenly came across the sight of weeds in water, and I knew at once that this would be the title image of my movie. [It appears during the opening credits.] There are a lot of things not there in the movie, like the shot of a bunch of flowers floating in a stream. That’s a journey too, like the journey of my protagonists, and I wanted to shoot it. And those shots of the millipede and the python – again, creatures making their way through their own journey. It’s beautiful to make movies this way, probably because I read a lot of haiku.
But surely your entire filmmaking cannot be based on the hope of accidental discoveries at the shooting spot.
Of course I have a basic structure. I work on it for two or three months. For instance, in Nandalala, two people set out to see their mothers. So the midpoint, the interval point, automatically establishes itself when the first mother is revealed to us. The question now is simply what happens in the second half, about the second mother. Like Joseph Campbell says, any story has within it an inherent mythical structure. [Appropriately, the places where the mothers reside are named Annaivayal and Thaaivaasal.] The hero goes through a journey, he meets some bad people, he meets some good people, he goes into the belly of the whale, and he comes out transformed. What is this transformation? What did he learn in this process? That’s the basic structure.
You mentioned haikus earlier. Your office walls are filled with Japanese art, and there’s that photograph of Kurosawa as well. What is your interest in Japanese culture?
First of all, I learn from Kurosawa and Kitano. I don’t say “learnt” because it’s not just in the past tense – it’s an everyday process. I didn’t learn from the director I worked under. And I learnt from haiku that the most important thing in the movie medium is the pause – in between a shot, in between action, in between dialogue delivery or performance. Those three lines of the haiku have so many pauses, which add up to so much meaning. They don’t complete the haiku. They just leave it to us to complete it. You find that in Japanese films too. I like that.
My characters won’t complete their dialogues. They’ll just speak a little and leave the rest to interpretation. There should always be some suspense before they act. Even after I finish the shot, I don’t cut immediately. After finishing the shooting script of Anjaathey, I asked my assistant how many dissolves there were. He said there was only one. That’s when I knew how violent the film was. A lot of Japanese culture is based on Buddhism, which came from here. So it belongs to me too. That root is mine. I believe that the world is chaotic and the writer has to give order. Without hope, there is no meaning. Earlier, I was doing work without meaning. Now, I think what I’m doing is very meaningful.
How did you find the experience of being on the other side of the camera in Nandalala?
I think I’m a good actor, but I didn’t want to be perfect. For all shots, I asked my assistants to say “action” and “cut.” Even if I was wrong, I kept the shot. I didn’t look at the monitor and correct it. As a director, I can tell another actor if he is wrong. I can ask him to correct it. But when I’m directing myself, I cannot do that. If I tried to correct myself, I’d become self-conscious. I did some research in mental asylums. I observed the speech patterns of the inmates and so on. I found that everyone was different in the way they spoke, the way they walked, the way they behaved – so I decided not to go with any reference. The way I held my clothes is itself a shade to the character. [His character wears loose pants without a belt, and his hands are always holding up the pants, bunched up at the waist.]
In most cases, I don’t believe an actor can help a movie. Otherwise there’s nothing in the characters. That’s why I took Naren for my first film. I didn’t believe I needed a big professional actor. The day I need such an actor, I may use a Kamal Sir. That’s the other thing. When it comes to playing mentally challenged characters, he’s given us terrific references. I didn’t want to go that way. I abhor close-ups because they are narrative shots and you can make out that someone is “acting.” It’s a very boring device to tell a story through close-ups. It’s like looking through a microscope. With the long shot, there’s action within the frame, and I don’t have to necessarily depend on dialogue.
Is that why there are so many wide shots and top-angle shots in your films? Practically every other scene appears to be a God’s-eye-view shot.
Yes, it is God’s-eye-view. I’m very careful, and yet the top-angle shot creeps in. I usually storyboard my films – action, dialogue scenes – but with Nandalala, I didn’t want to do that. There was a storyboarded part – about 45 minutes (some 250 shots), with another climax, but it’s now cut from the film.
Tell me a little about how you got into films. At the panel discussion the other day, you mentioned that you’d been in 72 jobs. Is that right?
I got my engineering diploma in electronics from Chettinad College of Engineering and Technology. After that, I got into marketing. Yes, there were literally 72 jobs, over some seven years. I designed a water level indicator and sold it to a big firm and installed it. I made food and sold it to office-goers. I sold T-shirts. I sold transformers, motors and switch gears. One day, I was relaxing at home, looking up at the ceiling, at the empty white space. That gave me the spark of coming to cinema.
I never liked films. I was always very choosy and I haven’t seen many films. I liked films like Mahanadhi or Guna, but I’d never discuss them. And I knew nothing about world cinema. I was, however, a voracious reader. When I said I wanted to get into cinema, no one took me seriously. I realised I had to get myself some preliminary education. I’d seen the cinema rack at Landmark. I went and joined there as an employee, making entries of books at the back office. Whenever cinema books arrived, I’d keep them aside. I got permission and started taking notes. I did this very sincerely for a year. Among the books that greatly influenced me were David Mamet’s On Directing Film, the Hitchcock/Truffaut book of interviews, any book on Kurosawa, and, of course, Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
With all these varied interests, how is it working in Tamil cinema, with star-driven power structures and the difficulty, sometimes, of getting a good product out to people? Case in point being your own Nandalala.
I’ve always been a rebel. Before I gave two big hits, everyone discouraged me. Even today, they say the films ran because of the songs, but that’s not the case. I believe everyone comes to the theatre to see something different. I’m dragging them to a huge dark box and switching on a light, and they have to forget they’re watching a film. Yudham Sei is different from my earlier films. It’s a tight vigilante thriller. I’m sure those who liked Anjaathey will like this too.
Copyright ©2010 The New Sunday Express. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
rameshram
September 11, 2010
this dude is the anurag kashyap of tamil films. he talks a better game than his films would play.
hope nandalala was at least a scene by scene copy of kikujiro because at least that would be more entretaining than myskin’s originals.
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Shankar
September 11, 2010
So, is Nandhalala ever going to see the light of the day? And what was your opinion of the movie…lucky you!! 🙂
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Aravindan
September 11, 2010
BR – Two questions, When would the film release & How was the music score? 🙂
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Prasanna
September 11, 2010
Good one,BR!Any grape-vine on his (shelved?) movie with Kamal??
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Dualist
September 11, 2010
OverA pesurAn(r)
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Venkatesh
September 12, 2010
RameshRam: “he talks a better game than his films would play.” You are a harsh one aren’t you. i loved Anjaathey. Anyone who can get a line like – “senda kudicha adhu oru Socialism thaan” – is ok in my books.
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rameshram
September 12, 2010
venkatesh,
thats only because you ignore all of the dude’s tall talk and watch his movies without any background.
pesaratha pattha peria dostevskykkum tarantinokkum naduvula genetic mixing panni, atha edutthu guru dutt moldla kotti kamalahasan a thatti senja uruvam pola pesuvan.
cinema edukkum bothu mattum constipateda eduppan.
I think the thing is film making is not like writing a novel. it takes a very differrent technique to convert a cerebral screenplay into an awesome film. namba annan andha classa cut adichhuttar pl\ola irukku… from watching his films…
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bran1gan
September 12, 2010
Shankar/Aravindan: For obvious reasons, can’t talk about or review the film till release, right?
Prasanna: Didn’t ask him about that.
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Udhav
September 12, 2010
He is a very well-read, erudite guy. Me and my friends spent a day with him on the sets of Nandhalala in November 2008. One thing I noticed is his amazing confidence,which can easily come across as arrogant. He knows what he is talking. He spoke about Kurasowa, and about script writing for 4 hours non-stop. It was one great experience. He will make a mark in Indian cinema. Good that you interviewed him.
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Venkatesh
September 12, 2010
RameshRam:”thats only because you ignore all of the dude’s tall talk and watch his movies without any background” — thats actually quite true. Didn’t know much about the dude when i saw Anjaathey, but surely he might talk a tall talk – he does bring a new sensibility.
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Gradwolf
September 12, 2010
Ok so that means Nandalala is going to release. Sooner or later? 😛
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rameshram
September 12, 2010
compared to say bala or even the kalavani dude? Not so much. It’s all yesterday’s world cinema sensibility recycked for tamil films. Old wine in old bottles.
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Padawan
September 12, 2010
Did you manage to watch Drohi or Boss Engira Baskaran? Any comment/reviews?
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Deepak
September 13, 2010
“That scene with the old woman and the flowers in Anjaathey, I wept while writing it. Even Mani Sir asked me how I wrote it.”
If i remember right, you didnt like that scene. You felt he was trying too hard? a bit pretentious?
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bran1gan
September 13, 2010
Gradwolf: Actually, we didn’t talk about the release date at all. So really no clue.
Padawan: Saw both. Will write soon.
Deepak: I didn’t care for that touch at all. Here’s what I wrote in my BR on Anjaathey: “You think the point has been made – about the arbitrariness of life, which doesn’t always translate good intentions into good endings, or the hero’s realisation that he cannot save everyone (one of the film’s biggest achievements is that so much of it is so starkly open-ended, the director resolutely refusing to fill in the blanks) – but Mysskin brings things to a dreadfully sentimental close by having the old lady sprinkle flowers at the spot the victim had lain but a few minutes ago.”
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Karthikeyan
September 13, 2010
@Rameshram,
Your comment seems to be more of a tall talk than that of Mysskin’s. Confidence should not be confused with arrogance. The guy has a solid film to back himself.
“Kannadaasan kaaraikkudi” is enough to prove his calibre, IMHO
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rameshram
September 13, 2010
karthikeyan
It is possible that I don’t know what I’m talking about , on the other hand it may also be that myskin ,solid as his ‘knowledge ‘ may be, still makes constipated movies. Finally that is most important. I never read one line of bala speaking. I only watched his films. A good filmmaker can keep his mouthu shut and still convince us of his talent.
but wtf do I know.
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Prasad Muthusamy
September 14, 2010
well I do agree some with Rameshram here. Myskkin seems to claim to have a zeal to make interesting films but apparently they are not too different except for the broken patterns of dialogue writing and the fact they are done in Thamizh . His characters, almost all of them have a sense of abnormality (though they are portrayed with a next door neighbor image) which makes them so artificial and yet he talks about not having close up shots and how it would reveal the actor in the shot. I couldn’t disagree more on this.
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kamil
September 14, 2010
Rangan – Are you avidly expecting Endhiran? Looking forward to it with a mix of anxiety and excitement?
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vijay
September 15, 2010
I am curious BR, as to why you even chose to interview this guy in the first place. Was it just a continuation after the movie screening or did you have an intention to interview him all along? He has just done 2 films before Nandhalala and they weren’t exactly pathbreaking. I was thinking that actually Nandhalala would reveal a bit more about who Mysskin really is. Because his first two films didn’t.
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bran1gan
September 15, 2010
kamil: Of course. Both En Iniya Iyandhira and Meendum Jino were favourites at one time (especially with Je’s illustrations), so if Shankar maanges to capture even half that spirit, it should be fun. (Though I’m not sure how those stories would read today. I read a short story of Sujatha recently about a man in a submerged vessel cruising through a strange land under sea, and — like the ending of Planet of the Apes — he discovers it’s actually Chennai. Was a bit meh!)
Vijay: Surely you’re not saying that the only people “worthy” of interviews are those with a significant body of work behind them. I got an opportunity. I grabbed it. Plus, flaws and all, I do think Anjathey is a very interesting film.
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rameshram
September 15, 2010
“with a significant body of work”
work optional.
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Prasad Muthusamy
September 15, 2010
@BR:completely on a different note, did you just become a writer with the movie ‘kadhal 2 kalyanam’? or is it just one among the wikipedia’s false informations.
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vijay
September 15, 2010
BR, Not about “worthiness”, but just about having something to talk about. Like when you talked earlier to GVM or Selva they had a few films under their belt and we kind of knew their style.
Granted you got to watch Nanadalala and maybe that changed things a bit. Otherwise, from just his previous 2 films, I wouldn’t be able to frame questions like “how come heroes and characters in your films all have flaws?” and such.Not enough data points to reveal a pattern.
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vijay
September 15, 2010
Also, talking about worthiness, I’d assume that the interviewees on your list aren’t some random selections but are some kind of favorites of yours or have atleast made some work that have interested you. So that makes them “worthy” in a way right? I mean, I dont see you interviewing a Perarasu or a KS Ravikumar or a Dharani or even a KV Anand or Lingusamy.
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bran1gan
September 15, 2010
Prasad Muthusamy: Yes, the news is true.
vijay: Oh, but I never ran into any of them, right? But you’re right in a way. The interviewee’s work (say, with Thamarai or Mysskin) has to interest you if you have a half-way hope of doing a decent interview. otherwise, it will become one of those randomly generic interviews about “how was it working with so-and-so”? So, yes, there is a certain amount of subjectivity here, and I have said no to a couple of interviews. And no, I’m not going to name names 🙂
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pulikesi
September 15, 2010
//There was a storyboarded part – about 45 minutes (some 250 shots), with another climax, but it’s now cut from the film.//
If it is the Legendary Scene which Mysskin had been claiming about Having Only the BGM of Raaja, without any Dialogues…Then its a Big Letdown 😦
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apala
September 15, 2010
BR,
I think one of those interviews should be K S Sori sorry K. S. Ravikumar’s!!!!!!! I have a gut feeling that you hate his films with passion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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NullPointer
September 16, 2010
Maybe K.S Ravikumar already figures in that list which BR won’t name. But anyone who could actually fubar talent like Kamal is surely worthy of being interviewed -:)
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vijay
September 16, 2010
BR, sometimes a convo with someone like TR can be pure fun for all the wrong reasons. I never miss his interview videos on youtube 🙂
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Mambazha Manidhan
September 16, 2010
Have you ever done an interview with Murali before ? If not, do you plan it to do it someday ?
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bran1gan
September 16, 2010
apala: I don’t hate KSR exactly. I was just appalled at how he took a decent script in Dasavatharam and showed no sense of ‘directing’ whatsoever. That easygoing style may have worked for something like Tenali or Avvai Shanmugi, but this needed someone with a vision and with a certain sensibility. What a dreadful botch he made of the film!
vijay: Actually, if I run into TR, I wouldn’t mind at all! And not for facetious reasons. I think he’d make a good interview subject.
MM: Dude, so not in good taste!
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MumbaiRamki
September 16, 2010
Brangan sir , How do you manage to get the conversations going ? Do you feel passionate about the conversations or do they become templatised ? In some cases i believe the person would be turning the interview into a monologue rather than having a conversation . Romba kastamana vela boss ! I love your interviews.
( have you ever written a piece on plagarism VS inspiration in tamizh movies -?)
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bran1gan
September 17, 2010
MumbaiRamki sir: Thanks. That’s why I said (in an earlier comment) that you need to WANT to talk to someone if the interview is to be any good. In my experience, once the person on the other side senses that you know your job, he relaxes because he knows you’re not going to ask him silly questions like “how was it working with this actor”. And once that rapport gets going, the conversation begins to flow — though you still have to direct it to get what you want.
And no, I haven’t written such a piece. I did write something to that effect in a recent BR, though.
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sachita
September 17, 2010
Your best interview till date is bombay jayashree.
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rameshram
September 17, 2010
I think the best interviews were conducted ever, was of vikram and some other people, where vikram says ” practice cinema ella manage pannuven, idhu takkar” and someone else says” enakku nenaivu therinja naal leirunthe horlics than, en ammavum adhe kudippa” and finally”padapada ulagam engum sutrinen, bhalathukku ‘orlicks paruguven.”
Theres a serious point here.
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RyanTheMan
October 12, 2010
Dear Rameshram, you are being very tough on this guy. Before we get into the debate whether he is a good or bad, let me tell you that it takes really really good reading habits, observing abilities and life experiences to be a good director. We in India more often than not tend to lionize mediocre people, directors included, who have never read a book in their life or are directors simply because their fathers were producers or well connected in the movie industry, but he is not one of those. He became a director all on his own and you got to appreciate that dude. He is good from what was seen of him so far though his body of work may be a 2-movie list.
Anyways, you are free to voice your opinions, but I must admit that I am a huge fan Mysskin and my opinions may be biased much like yours! Cheers 🙂
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Rohan
January 20, 2011
Was this interview in English or Tamizh? If it was in Tamizh please mention that the questions and answers were translated. It’s important. Thanks.
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Mohan
January 30, 2011
Can you please describe why you consider his movies constipated. Infact the very comment makes me so angry.
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Vinay Raghu
January 18, 2015
I saw Pisasu recently and I have been binge watching all of Mysskin’s movies from then on. Enjoying noticing all the patterns and symbolism. Particularly enjoyed Onayum a lot.
Illayaraja sir’s bgm in both Onayum and Nandalala are brilliant. No words to describe his genius.
And I keep coming back to your analysis, re-reading every single work you have written about him and his movies. I feel like there is more method to his work than what he is admitting in this interview. His visual grammar is thoroughly enjoyable. Like you mentioned, its a rearrangement of his favorite tropes in different movies. Part of the fun is looking out for them.
What he says in this interview about pauses is very true. He has an amazing understanding of pauses. The cop that salutes for a painfully long time in Onayum. The pause before the fake witch doctor encounters the ghost in Pisasu. Really entertaining.
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Ramchander Krishna (@ramctheatheist)
February 28, 2016
A quick question to all of you. In this interview, Mysskin mentions a war sequence prior to the climax.
http://www.behindwoods.com/new-videos/videos-q1-09/director-interview/mysskin.html
The Nandalala trailer too had a song with non-Tamil lyrics, which is described as a war preparation song. Plus the trailer has a couple of shots of a little kid running through a dark alley with a lighted torch and Mysskin running through the same alley with blood stains on his shirt.
The version of Nandalala that I watched did not have these. Did any of you watch these? Any idea if this was cut out due to some censor issue?
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Madan
April 18, 2020
“In most cases, I don’t believe an actor can help a movie. Otherwise there’s nothing in the characters”
” I abhor close-ups because they are narrative shots and you can make out that someone is “acting.” It’s a very boring device to tell a story through close-ups. It’s like looking through a microscope. With the long shot, there’s action within the frame, and I don’t have to necessarily depend on dialogue.”
This showed up for some reason among the ‘other’ articles below the Chak De piece. Hmm, does seem like Mysskin evolved and moved from this position. I do recall closeups in some important scenes in both OAK and Pisaasu.
And as interesting as long shots are – certainly immensely so in contrast to the close up obsession of typical Tamil cinema – it could equally be argued that long shots are just a crutch to hide the mediocrity of acting in some of his films.
If I put this perspective together with his influences, maybe we may never see a haunting drama from Mysskin; maybe the central conceit will always be something to do with action/crime/horror. Which would be a pity because he has the virtuosity to excel in that kind of setting too and I would love to see him attempt that as he would probably bring something fresh to the table there too. We could get to see humanised/flawed characters as opposed to tropes. But he would then have to let actors perform.
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