JOIN USMysskin, one of Tamil cinema's finest film-makers, has always impressed audiences with his storytelling abilities. No wonder then, the man has been able to deliver hit after hit at the box office. His last three films Onaayyum Aatukuttiyum, Pisaasu, and the recently released Thupparivaalan give an idea of how successful the man has been, both as a director and a scriptwriter. All three films have gone on to emerge as superhits. More importantly, all three films have been critically acclaimed too.
In the spotlight
Sitting down among neatly stacked piles of books, Mysskin discloses details of his next film with a smile, "My next film will be Savarakkaththi. I have written the script for this film and it has been directed by my assistant director G R Adithya. I also play one of the leads in the film."
The film, which has also been produced by Mysskin, has been garnering a lot of attention as it features director Ram, another highly rated film-maker, along with actor Poorna. "This is the first time I have tried writing humour. The movie is full of humour but at the same time, it is emotionally driven. It is a very passionate and intense movie; a complete entertainer. Savarakkaththi is about a barber who is an incorrigible liar. Director Ram plays this role in the film. The story begins when this man crosses path with a petulant man whose nature is exactly the opposite of him. I play the petulant guy," Mysskin explains.
Mysskin's scripts usually mirror real-life events. Ask him if this film is also based on a real-life incident and he says no. "It is not based on a real-life incident. But some of the sequences may have been inspired by real incidents," he says.
Mysskin is moved beyond words when he talks about the contributions that his co-stars Ram and Poorna have made to the film. Talking about Poorna, who plays the character of Subhadra, a hearing-impaired mother of two children, who is about to give birth to her third child, Mysskin says, "I modelled this character on my mother. Adithya and I approached four or five heroines, but they all backed out on getting to know that they would have to play a pregnant woman, who is already the mother of two children. It was then that we spoke to Poorna. Although her face suited the role, she had a Malayalam accent, and we needed her to speak in a particular dialect in the film. But you won't believe it, she came for an audition and for almost three weeks, she sincerely attended all the training sessions. At the end of it, she delivered a flawless performance."
Filmy brotherhood
Mysskin has the same admiration for director Ram. "When my brother Adithya (Mysskin refers to his assistant directors as brothers) wanted me to write this script for him, I could not see myself in the lead role. But Ram's face kept appearing before me every time I had to write about this character. So, we decided that he was the best person to play this role. The first day, we had a few hiccups as he is a different kind of director. But from the next day, when we became more comfortable with each other's working styles, he delivered a beautiful performance," says Mysskin.
He narrates an incident to show how committed and dedicated Ram was as an actor. "We were shooting this climax scene in which Ram suffers a fall and his leg gets broken. While shooting the sequence, Ram actually broke his leg. But he still continued to act. He completed the sequence and only then went for treatment. It was only later when he was treated by the doctors that we got to know that of the 16 tendons in his leg, 12 had been torn. He was in so much pain and yet he never showed it," he signs off.