As he turns 49, we give you 20 of his hallmark frames.

Slideshows

Happy Birthday Mysskin: 20 signature frames that bear the mark of the filmmaker

One element of Mysskin's filmography that cannot go unnoticed is the surreal imagery, that the filmmaker has famously come to be known for.

Team CE

Updated:18th Sep, 2020 at 4:49 PM

How many directors can sum up the story of their film in a single shot? This symbolic long shot depicts Sathya and Kiruba taking two separate paths after a fork in the road.

This one is another trademark visual, where Mysskin leaves us pondering on the 'karma-effect' in the climax of Anjathey

The haunting frame in Yuddham Sei where the camera slowly pans from a subject to reveal a box of severed hands.

So typical of Mysskin. The unexpected triumph of a small knife over a mob could not have had a more stylish depiction.

This frame where Sappai gets shot by Dhaya, but the cops stop his wailing son from reaching for his dying father. The bad man is shot, but we can’t take solace in that, for nothing is black and white.

This particular sequence in Onaayum Aatukuttiyum where a contract killer waits for his partner to start his bike while holding a constable (frozen in a salute) at gun-point before firing at him!

Mysskin tends to choose the wide-angle shots because of the lingering effect on the audience. This one in the climax of the film, involving 3 contrasting character, is heights of emotional perplexity.

Mysskin is not a fan of wasting screen time. In Pisaasu, he opens the film with this unsettling frame, which sets the pace for everything to follow.

You would expect a father breaking down on hearing of his girl’s death to be shown in a close-up. But then, in Mysskin's world, we see the dad at the far end of a wide shot. The impact is phenomenal.

Radharavi, on all fours, aces this chef-de-oeuvre moment of Mysskin, which has the actor crumbling down on seeing the plight of his daughter.

This brilliant frame in Thupparivaalan has Bakkiyaraj, this time, crawling on the ground on all fours, reaching for his wife, before his impending death.

This stark long-shot comes at the climax of Thupparivaalan, where the hero and the villain are frozen in a classic Mysskin moment, when the boy walks in for the final payback.

A truly agonizing frame, where the mentally-challenged man with the faculties of a eight-year old, meets his mother, after a long, distressing search.

This rather anti-climactic moment, which has Mysskin reacting to an unlikely taunt, almost plays to the gallery, in an otherwise artsy movie.

This brilliant 360 degree arc shot in Anjathey, where the camera first arcs around a occupied car, arcs further to reveal the approaching cops, and in the last 90 deg arc, reveals the car to be empty.

A wounded henchman performing an unintentional 'Thoppukaranam' while on the phone, sitting outside a roadside shrine of Lord Ganesha in Onaayum Aatukuttiyum.

This sly frame of dark-comedy, where the song ‘Pandhu parakkum’ airs on radio when the roadside fruit vendor finds a disembodied head between the melons.

Another of those Mysskin-special long-shots from his debut film, Chithiram Pesuthadi, which foreshadows a definitive altercation.

A song, a saree, and a singer's stance from Chithiram Pesuthadi, which became part of the pop-culture of the mid-2000s.

The martial arts sequence in the market in Mugamoodi that brims of style and authenticity.

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