Mysskin & Ilaiyaraaja – A Lethal combination

After a long time, last week I met Trotsky Marudu, famous artist, painter, set designer and special effects director. Marudu has been working with director Mysskin in his current project Nandalala as Creative Director and I have been hearing a lot from him on this project as well as about the new hot shot director of the Tamil film industry. They have been camping in Prasad studios Chennai where Ilaiyaraaja has been scoring the background score for the film. Apart from his regular 70 piece orchestra, this time Ilaiyaraaja has got three players from the Budapest Symphony-Oboe, Key Flute and Solo Violin- for this project.

Mysskin made a notable entry into the Tamil film scene with his first feature Chithiram Pesuthadi. He followed this up with the stunning Anjathe and confirmed his position as a force to reckon with. Because, off late, you have come across many new directors on the scene, but very rarely they could build on that initial success without fizzling out. So his arrival was very refreshing and badly needed by the industry.

Hence there has been a great expectation on Mysskin’s third project Nandalala. Adding to the excitement is the fact that he himself is acting as the hero of this film.

Nandala is the story of two people – a man and a boy-searching for their mother.

In fact, Mysskin wrote this script immediately after his first film Chithiram Pesuthadi. But not many heroes were willing to touch. In a fit of anger Mysskin wrote the script of Anjathe and it too became a super hit. Then he started Nandalala with himself donning the central character.

And he surprised everyone when he announced Ilaiyaraaja as the music composer for this third film. Because Sundar C Babu has done a fairly good job in his first two films. In fact, I got impressed very much with the usage of music as a tool in Mysskin’s films which clearly showed the attitude and demands of the director.

So naturally there was a great expectation on the music side as Ilaiyaraaja is getting a good noteworthy project after a long long time.

But I had my own skepticism on the whole thing. First is Mysskin acting as the hero. Off late, this is becoming a fad among Tamil film directors. And adding insult to injury they shamelessly give you the excuse that no one else can do justice to their characters hence they were forced to take it up, etc. Mysskin says that every actor he approached loved the script but felt it was not the right time to do this role of a mentally challenged man. So I decided to turn hero.

So I was really stunned, when I had a chance to watch the telecine of the climax with music. First of all, the entire climax which runs for about 30 minutes is without any dialogue.
So you can imagine the role the music composer has to play to fill this up. And the supreme confidence of the script writer/Director to conceive a climax like this.

And what I saw was just unbelievable. It disturbed me very much. After seeing this I was convinced that the success of this mentally disturbed character in the company of a boy going in search of their roots is mainly due to the fact that it is a new face. No existing known actors could have made such an impact in this story.

And Ilaiyaraaja has once again proved that there is no one in India to beat him in giving an uplifting background score to a movie. And what a score he has done!

Like the finale movement of a symphony, he effortlessly takes you along towards the end of an emotional yet powerful story.

You can feel the challenge thrown at the composer by a fiery director with countless cues and the Master matching them all with elan.

In fact, with so many lengthy pieces in this film, I asked Mysskin is there any chance we will get to hear the background score separately. Because, in his earlier film Anjathe, he had released the theme track of the movie in the audio cd. Mysskin said he certainly plans to select and release the tracks. He has just two songs in this movie.

Meeting Mysskin was a pleasure and revealing. This is my first meeting but I could not recognize him at first from the pictures I have seen. Because he used to be very fat with a long hair and beard. He said for this role, he has lost about 20 kilos.

And he is refreshingly very knowledgeable about many things under the sun. He used to work in the famous book store Landmark in Chennai before entering the film industry. A voracious reader, he can talk for hours on JK, Zen Buddhism or Shostakovich symphonies or movies of the world. It was a pleasure meeting such a well round personality who is supremely confident about his craft as a film maker and script writer.

And I have no doubts that Mysskin is on the verge of his hat trick with Nandalala.

I am eagerly awaiting the release which was originally scheduled on January 14th the Pongal day. Now it is expected to release in March 2009.

My advance congratulations, Mysskin. You richly deserve it.