Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum (2013)

English translation: The Wolf and the Lamb

Director: Mysskin

Story: Mysskin

Cast: Sri, Mysskin, Shaji, Raj Bharath

Music: Ilayaraaja

Time: 143 minutes

Bottom-line: A pulse-racing thriller; highly recommended

Dimly lit settings, a chilling background score, dialogues kept to a minimum, and of course, a lot of violence…you know it’s a Mysskin film when all these elements are present. This 2013 crime thriller is unique in a number of ways; for starters, it has no heroine or songs, and that, for a Tamil movie, is a big thing! Mysskin himself stars in the lead role, with several other not-so-famous actors forming the rest of the cast.

In the dead of the night, Chandru (Sri), a final year medical student, finds a man dying from a bullet wound on the road. With no one offering him help, he decides to take the man home and perform the operation himself. The next morning, he wakes up to find the man gone, with no evidence of last night’s events. Later, two cops arrest Chandru, accusing him of letting a criminal escape; we come to know that the dying man, code-named “Wolf” (Mysskin), is a criminal on the run for the past two years. Meanwhile, we also see another man, Thamba (Bharath), hatching a plan to capture the Wolf alive before the cops do. When the Wolf contacts Chandru and asks him to visit him one night, everyone is on their feet ready to kill the Wolf on sight... but then again, the Wolf has seen this coming too. The events taking place till dawn form the plot of the film.

Sri as Chandru

Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum has so many elements that you can find in Mysskin films. A mysterious beginning – seemingly unrelated to the plot – an almost real time story, complex characters, superb cinematography… I like the fact that he writes proper thriller stories without deviating from the crux with unnecessary comedy/romance tracks. The plot twists are really good, and all of them hit you with a bang. The action sequences are choreographed superbly. There are so many scenes to look out for: the sword/knife fight in the basement, the Wolf’s “countdown” of bullets being fired, to name a few. One reason why the story is much more exciting than an average thriller is because of the time frame; all the events happen over just one night so the viewers can feel seconds ticking away with every scene.

 

Mysskin as the Wolf

Ilayaraaja might be famous for several hit songs in his past, but in this film, he shows a whole new level of expertise with his background music composition. As such, the characters rarely talk; most of the time the music keeps playing in the background as we follow the action on screen, and having seen films like Jaws, Inception, and Psycho, I know how much an apt score can contribute the effectiveness of the thrill. The actors, despite being relatively new to Tamil cinema, have given amazing performances. Mysskin leads from the front, playing the perplexing character of the “Wolf”, and is aptly supported by Sri, who plays the Lamb. I like the way the tension is created, as the two of them play psychological games with each other. Just when you think Chandru has planned something, the Wolf has a counter-measure ready. In the end, it becomes a matter of human sympathy and conscience that brings about a change in both their characters. In the closing credits, we see how Mysskin considers the whole setting to be a forest, with different characters playing the role of different animals, with we the viewers, being the leaves, noticing everything silently.

Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum has only a few drawbacks in my view; I felt that the ending did not tie up all loose ends. Leaving things up to interpretation is one thing but in this case, some issues like the fate of Chandru’s family should have been sorted out. Another issue is, while I liked the use of violence in the film, I found the innumerable murders a bit overboard; Mysskin killing off characters like Tarantino made it a tad unrealistic. That aside, the remainder of the film is one hell of a roller-coaster ride, filled with all-round entertainment! Don’t miss it.

My Rating: 4/5