Director Mysskin’s film Onnayum Aatukutiyum is an emotional dark suspense thriller about a dangerous mercenary desperately trying to redeem himself in a society that is unforgiving and relentless in its attempts to foil his good intentions and destroy his life. This film also entertains. The director is back with a bang. Mysskin, who is the master of suspense thrillers, has scripted a brilliant tale filled with human emotions and dark humour, cleverly maintaining the suspense element in the film until the very end.
The opening scene in the Onayum Aatukuttiyum sets the tone of the entire film. A dark night deserted road, a lone man running and then collapsing and his blood slowly staining the road.
Pedestrians and motorists pass by without making any attempt to help him. One stops to take a picture of the man to post on Facebook, with just this one scene mysskin effectively describes the callous attitude of society today. There is one scene where a police officer quietly takes away the watch of the bleeding unconscious man. There are many scenes like this through out the film.
The entire film happens during one night in Chennai. All locations are actual, which makes it believable. One night Chandran (Shri) a fourth year medical student sees a badly injured stranger on a deserted road while he is returning home from a group study session with his friends. . Chandran takes the man with bullet injuries on his bike to hospitals to treat him. But the doctors refuses to treat him claiming that the man had gun shot wounds and the matter had to be reported to the police .
He takes the man to the police station but because of the insensitive attitude of the police he takes the man to his home and with the help of a college professor he performs a surgery that saves the mans life. But to his surprise he finds the man missing on the next morning .
Later he comes to know the person whom he actually saved is a dangerous criminal by the name of Wolf (Mysskin). The man is believed to have killed over 14 people.
The film works for its unique story telling method without any commercial compromises as it has no heroine and songs. And aided superbly by Ilayaraja’s background score, which is the backbone of the film. Some parts of the film there is long silence without any dialogues , the background score heightens the mood of anxiety and dread. The performance by the lead characters Shri and Mysskin Is remarkable. Shri gives a riveting performance and is an actor of substance in the making. Mysskin plays to his strengths as the killer who is trying to redeem his past and has hardly any dialogues and is convincing in the crucial climax scene.
The underlining message is about a man who is trying to redeem the wrongs in his life and the clash between the good and the bad. As the title suggest it is about two guys one a cunning and ruthless wolf and the other an innocent lamb.
The supporting cast are all well etched and leave a mark. Cameraman Junior Renga’s night shots of greys, blacks and deserted Chennai roads and graveyard scene are in sync with the films ominous mood. Despite knowing that Chandru is innocent, the police blackmail him into helping them catch Wolf. The rest of the story is about how innocent Chandru is trapped in the dangerous game played by the wolf.
There are no songs, or subplots or a separate comedy track to mar the flow of narration.
The only drawback of the film is that it is a bit stretched at 2 hours and 20 minutes. Mysskin style of shot composition takes its own time and is long drawn out. If the film would have been a little crisper the drag would not have been felt.
On the whole, Onayum Aatukuttiyum is a stylishly made thriller and a class act. Not to be missed.
Verdict – Good