BEHINDWOODS COLUMN

“If you are an actor in a Mysskin film, you might probably use a binocular to find out where the camera is placed, on most occasions”.

An extremely long top angle shot, of a road, which has absolutely no camera movement. A character running into frame and dropping half dead on the floor, with the camera still refusing to roll off the crane. Mysskin had already grooved me up to witness a typical Mysskin-ish film-making style that deals with a lot of stupefaction. Soon, I found myself switching off all the channels that were being aired in my mind, and had myself stuck like a barnacle with the flow of the movie.

Onayum Attukuttiyum is definitely not a movie that has a powerful storyline, but what’s authoritative here is the intriguing narrative technique. Each element of the story is uncoiled slowly and unwaveringly as the film-roll uncoils itself in the projector room. Again Mysskin picks up a style that has not been delineated hitherto in India (Other than in his own films of course).

However, having said that, I would like to iterate the fact that the movie has strong reminiscence of the Korean and Japanese film making style. It is heartwarming to witness a film maker, who is so passionate about the art, to have been inspired by a particular treatment style and gobble it up completely, pinning a distinctive badge for himself in the process.

Onayum Attukuttiyum breaks the modus operandi of Indian Cinema that follows a regular diagram we are all aware and definitely bored of. I would like to recall one of Mysskin’s interviews with behindwoods, where he reiterated that this movie does not have a hero.

“My movie does not have a hero. But there will be characters that perform heroic deeds” He said

I personally felt that he was spot on, on what he said. I do not unify with the idea of splitting actors into divisions giving them badges with titles of ‘hero, ‘heroine’, ‘villain’, ‘comedian’ and so on. They are all actors who are assigned characters that suit their physical appearances and abilities, and I strongly feel they should just be called ‘actors’ and anything else is discrimination.

I was surprised that Mysskin hadn’t used too many close-up shots in the movie. There are a large number of characters who walk in and out of frame and I somehow felt it was difficult to memorize the faces because of a few specifics.

Firstly, most faces were new faces and took time to register. Secondly, most of them were policemen who obviously had to be clad in similar outfits. I felt, a few extra close-ups could have definitely designated the characters better. If I was asked to put in a light hearted reasoning for that, I would say that it was Mysskin’s attempt to draw more people into the theaters as they would be able to note the faces better on large screen than in television and computer screens.

Well, jokes apart, the stand out part in the movie is that the director has portrayed the darker face of Chennai that is lonely and uncanny. The assorted variations of shots combined with the multifarious violin loops in Ilayaraja’s ‘foreground’ scoring took me to the pinnacles of stimulation. I was literally sitting by the edge of my seat, not only because I had two wide chested people sitting on either side of me, but also because of the vigour in the screenplay.

Mysskin’s metaphorical story that features at the end of the movie is an ambitious piece of art, but one has to listen carefully to catch the similes, failing which the purpose of watching the movie is lost. That again reminds me of what Mysskin mentioned in the interview.

“I have created this movie with a lot of sincerity. I request the audience to watch the film attentively. You can shout at me if you do not like the movie. But, if you want to chillax with a tub of popcorn and use the cellphone, please don’t come for my movie. All your money will be wasted”

Summing up the gamut of engrossing events that rise periodically in Onayum Attukuttiyum, I would say that Mysskin has created a film that falls under the ‘must watch’ category alongside other world classics.