Indian cinema has been haunted by ghosts and more ghosts. Most of the time, the spirits have been evil, and they have scared the wits out of you. Often, in female forms and sporting white, they have been those supernatural beings murdered for love coming back to wreck vengeance on the killers.
But Tamil writer-director-actor Mysskin - known for films like Anjathe, Nandalala and Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum - is all set to release his latest helming effort, Pisasu, where the ghost will be shorn of evil.
Mysskin says that his movie will avoid the clichés riding on ghost tales. His ghost will of course be a woman, but a beautiful woman - played by the ravishing actor from Kochi, Pragya.The director - whose roles as a mentally ill man in Nandalala and as a murderer seeking redemption in Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum were critically acclaimed - avers that his ghost will be a woman who dies and finds that she cannot go to Heaven. So, she comes back to earth. "Imagine her plight. She is not wicked, and is greater than any human being," Mysskin told the media.
With his name inspired by Prince Mysskin, the protagonist in Dostoevsky's novel, The Idiot, the director talks about his own "supernatural" experiences that turned out to be figments of his imagination. Or so he thinks now. When he was barely nine, he defied his parents' warning and went into a graveyard at night only to fall unconscious after he felt someone hitting him. He was brought home, and he recovered all right.
But four years later, he conquered his fear and began visiting a graveyard near his school in Chennai. Sometimes, he used to sit there for hours, for he found the place remarkably peaceful. He loves looking at the tombstones, some of which remind him of the ironies of life. The grave of a nine-month old baby, for instance.
One is reminded of a German movie, Stations of the Cross, where a teenage girl, being brought up in the strictest of Catholic tradition, asks her priest why would God punish a child by making it sick.
Maybe Mysskin's Pisasu will enlighten us with answers to such riddles that have troubled mankind since time immemorial.
You can follow Gautaman Bhaskaran on Twitter at @gautamanb
With his name inspired by Prince Mysskin, the protagonist in Dostoevsky's novel, The Idiot, the director talks about his own "supernatural" experiences that turned out to be figments of his imagination. Or so he thinks now. When he was barely nine, he defied his parents' warning and went into a graveyard at night only to fall unconscious after he felt someone hitting him. He was brought home, and he recovered all right.
But four years later, he conquered his fear and began visiting a graveyard near his school in Chennai. Sometimes, he used to sit there for hours, for he found the place remarkably peaceful. He loves looking at the tombstones, some of which remind him of the ironies of life. The grave of a nine-month old baby, for instance.
One is reminded of a German movie, Stations of the Cross, where a teenage girl, being brought up in the strictest of Catholic tradition, asks her priest why would God punish a child by making it sick.
Maybe Mysskin's Pisasu will enlighten us with answers to such riddles that have troubled mankind since time immemorial.
You can follow Gautaman Bhaskaran on Twitter at @gautamanb