Film: Pisasu
Director: Mysskin
Cast: Naga, Prayaga, Radha Ravi, Kalyani Natarajan
With Pisasu, Mysskin makes a transition from crime to the supernatural genre. A blend of horror and humour, the film, however, lacks a gripping screenplay. The characters sans emotional depth, fail to connect too.
From the opening scene itself, the trademark Mysskin shots are evident here too. There is the by-now-familiar opening shot of a deserted road, where there is a hit-and-run accident, a girl seriously injured. The hero in the vincity takes her to a hospital where she breathes her last. It’s an exciting beginning with promise of more such moments to follow. The hero (debutant Naga) deeply affected by the girl’s death, reacts violently to the wrongs around him. Like in the scene at the subway where blind beggars (they seem straight out of the sets of Onaayum Aattukuttiyum) are harassed by rowdies. It’s a well choreographed fight scene though. The hero finds his apartment haunted with a ghostly presence.
It’s deja vu whether it’s a neighbour’s kid playing ball with an unknown presence, shadows fleeting by in the apartment or a ghostly presence suddenly appearing through the chimney. There are no edge-of-the-seat spine chilling moments. There is a mildly amusing scene where the hero brings in a ghost buster. It has a couple of other fun moments too. But one is confused here and not sure if they are meant to be funny or they are serious situations inadvertently funny! The hero, tormented and harassed, sets out to find the dead girl’s identity and the errant cab driver.
Incidentally, we get to see only part of the hero’s face, as most of it is covered with his hair (like Prasanna in Anjathe), which he never bothers to push aside, misleading one to think that there may be a revelation related to it. The three wastrels hanging around the apartment building, one of them spewing philosophy, seem an unwanted distraction. Radha Ravi gets a meaty role and makes the most of it.
The film has a few positives, like its soul stirring violin track, debutant composer Arroll Corelli leaving his mark. Also, there is an interesting twist, the backtrack giving us a new perspective of some of the earlier scenes, and a different feel to the happenings. The narration confines itself to less than two hours of viewing time, which is a plus point. Pisasu follows Mysskin’s splendidly crafted Onaayum Aattukuttiyum. So there was a lot of expectation from the director. But it turns out to be a disappointing fare.