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Simple and successful

From sales assistant to director, Mysskin's story is as fascinating as his winning debut "Chitiram Pesudadi"

From marketing transformers and motors after his diploma in Electrical and Electronics Engineering to working for the Landmark bookstore to becoming a director, it's been quite a journey for director Mysskin, who made his debut with "Chitiram Pesudadi."

Getting into retrospective mode, he says, "As my marketing career failed, I decided to something I was passionate about, which was entering the celluloid world as a writer and director." Being a voracious reader, he did a stint at Landmark where he brushed up his knowledge of film making. "I worked as a sales assistant and in the back office bar-coding books. Between consignments, we used to get a little spare time which I would use to read up all that I could on movie making," he says.

Landmark is where he bumped into director Kathir. "He was looking for a book about the Independence struggle. I pulled out around 30 titles. He was impressed and asked me what I wanted to do in life. I said I wanted to become a director. He laughed at my reply. I was surprised when the next day he called me and asked me whether I'd like to join him. I just ran back to Landmark, submitted my resignation and joined him as an assistant," he recalls.

His job with Kathir was to read one short story every day and retell it. About "Chitiram Pesudadi", he says, "It's a boy-meets-girl theme but I wanted to travel to a different realm and show what happens after two people fall in love — the responsibilities, the impact on their values. I wanted two opposite poles. A boy from a henchmen's background as opposed to a girl from a decent family."

Ask him if the `gana' song by Ulaganathan — "Vazhai meenukkum Vilanga Meenukum Kalyanam" — which is on almost every movie goer's lips, contributed to the film's success, he says, "Every film has to have a sensational element to draw the crowd — either a big director or a star. Mine had this song... because of which people came to see the film and ended up saying it's a good story."

His future plans? He is not telling just as yet.

You are curious about the name Mysskin. He explains, "I was named after a character, Prince Myshkin, in Dostoevsky's novel `Idiot'. In Persian, it means a simple man — I think I am that."

SUDHA UMASHANKER

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