The other side of reality in Myshkin films

One peculiarity in Myshkin films which I find very interesting is his subversion of reality.

Take this scene in Savarakathi.
Ram is finally caught by the police and he is beaten like anything. The policeman asks what is there inside his box, ram hesitates to give and tries to hold it. The policeman snatches the box,
opens and throws all the stuff down. He inspects the things in it, takes a photo and asks who is this, Ram says it is his father. The policeman asks “your father has kept big Moustache, is he a police”. Ram replies proudly that he was a barber. The police tears the picture. Now, another police arrive and inform through the window from outside, that the commissioner is on the line.
The police get the mobile through the window and talks to the commissioner looking outside in the direction of the other police.

This is just a filler. The camera looms towards the barber’s knife meanwhile and shows the back of this police. The music builds the tension, the police talks on the phone. The camera focus is from the outside, from the view of this junior police.
We know already ram is going to come near him (after all that’s why the knife was shown), so he does, very slowly, looking down. The police finish the talk and turns, sees Ram is near him. Ram cuts near his face, shown from police angle (the one who gets the cut).

Here is where the usual Myshkin’s peculiar touch comes.
The policeman almost freezes in surprise, the other police who is looking from outside see Ram with a bit of puzzling surprise while he casually walks away. The junior police calls the wounded police, and then the camera takes it to inside and shows that Ram has cut half side of police’s Moustache.

If u imagine this scene from a realistic point, the police would have shouted however and where ever the injury is, not only out of pain but also to catch the guy. Let’s leave the other police’s reaction, it will only complicate what we already have here.
This is not a flaw, since cinema doesn’t need to follow any reality. This type of scenes which are his usual aren’t surreal or fantasy kind too.
They work within the confines of reality. He uses it to intensify the gravity of the scene. Tricky thing to do, but it works for him.

Take even the character, dialogues in his films (the protagonist or the main characters). Usually, I have few issues with his character sketches, except Onaayum Aatukuttiyum he has been showing mono characters. Let’s leave that aside now.
See their mannerism, body language, dialogue, tone etc and compare it with let’s say some quality Balu Mahendra films like Sandya Raagam or Veedu. Any good Tamil film for that matter. You could very well see the contrast.
Perhaps Myshkin clearly suggests and wants us to acclimatize to his cinematic reality. That, what we watch is cinema, a fiction. Tricky thing to do as i already said, since the empathy element is tough to establish.
But, Cinema of Myshkin whenever he writes his own story revolves around themes of compassion, humanity, redemption etc. That’s where these things get really interesting.

Hope he does more better stuffs in future.

PS: Talking of surreal, there is a scene in this film which tried it. After Myshkin says to ram you keep running, I will catch you. Ram sees everyone one of them on the road, saying the same to him. In order for the audience to understand that this not reality, the two ends of the frame is blurred a bit to focus only Ram’s Reaction. I felt this Could have been done even better since it starts out well. Many people could have rounded him ( A very usual type of scene though). Maybe production problem, whatever, it just lacked a final touch.

Originally posted at : https://diffusedmode.wordpress.com/