A thread on a decade of my fav Director. IMO, Mysskin had his ups & downs this decade..exploring different themes in his own (and often mocked) style and dabbling in singing, acting (love him in 'Savarakathi') as well as Music (did the music for trailer of 'Pyscho') 1/n

Yudham Sei still stands out for its taut screenplay, the terrific BGM (K) & the gorgeous cinematography (Sathyan Sooryan).Cheran is apt as the Mysskin protagonist who races against time & increasing no. of 'vetta patta kaigal' to find the killers.The nail-cutter fight is 2/n

Then with Mugamoodi he attempted to scale up but couldn't. A solid origin story of a common man turned hero could not translate as needed on screen (far too many commercial elements which the recently-released 'Hero' also suffers from). K's songs and BGM are still though 3/n

Mugamoodi's failure hit real hard. But he is usually in terrific form when pushed to a corner: he wrote Anjaathey in anger when he found no takers for Nandalala and then, after Mugamoodi's failure he silently returned with a bang through Onnayum Aatukutiyum (OA) 4/n

OA unfortunately did not get the footfall it deserved (probably due to 'Raja Rani' <Atlee > releasing at the same time). The critics however loved it to bits. It is immensely memorable for Raja sir's BGM and the super stylistic fight choreography 5/n

In OA, Mysskin made quite an impression as the antagonist who is on a path of redemption amidst all odds. The single-shot 'animal story' narrated by wolf & the climax fight are standouts. OA is his best along with Anjaathey (at least imo) despite so many years having passed 6/n

Then came Pisaasu, which is a personal favorite. I traveled all the way from Hyderabad to Chennai with my wife for the FDFS at Satyam. This film got a standing ovation when the credits rolled and I was lucky enough to meet & talk to him after the show. 7/n

Guess no one expected a love story when the film's promos focused only on the horror element. Once again, Mysskin was able to extract a great score from his MD (debutante Arrol Correli this time). On a lighter note, the film made me realize the value of haircuts 8/n

Thupparivalan, though a tad long, is a solid Sherlock-ian inspired whodunnit. And, like Yuddham Sei, Mysskin weaves an intricate web of a screenplay which starts with a puppy's death on a beach and... 9/n

...ends with the antagonist's final breath on a lake sitting beside the protagonist (2 sides of a coin??!!) after a breath-taking climax fight sequence. This was also Simran's return to the silver screen in a brief role :) 10/n

All in all, his hyper-stylized character reactions do not work all the time (e.g. Kaniyan's outburst after a character's death)..but film after film he has excelled in bring out solid musical work from his MDs (all his films), ... 11/n

.. fantastic cinematography (all his movie Climaxes except Mugamoodi,..), amazing fight choreography (all his films), philosophical undertones (Wolf's redemption arc in OA, 'Judas' being the one who 'betrays' the killers in YS,..) .. 12/n

.. coupled with his Mysskin-isms (a severed head among water melons in YS, the auto driver & his reveal in Pisasu, the bald guy in Anjaathey whose face we never see, various characters shouting out various God names when they die in OA..) 13/n

All said and done, Mysskin is a Director whose films I will watch irrespective of the genre or cast. 2020 has 'Psycho' and 'Thupparivalan 2' (thematically his strong points) planned for release & I hope both enjoy the amount of financial and critical success 'Anjaathey' did <fin>