Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja
Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, Samantha, ‘Bags’ Bagavathi, Mysskin
It’s safe to say that Super Deluxe has been the most anticipated Tamil film in the works for a while now. For fans of director Thiagarajan Kumararaja, who served up the cult Aaranya Kaandam in 2011, the expectation has built up over no less than eight years!
‘Super Deluxe’ has four interlinked narratives woven around the circumstances four sets of people find themselves in. There is Vaembu (Samantha), who’s infidelity in her marriage to Mugilan (the brilliant Fahadh Faasil) lands both of them in a major fix. They are left with the unenvious task of disposing off a corpse no less! Then, there is the group of adolescent lads who have a grand plan to bunk school and watch porn. This has an Inbetweeners feel to it, but a major revelation only a few minutes in leaves the TV shattered and a knife piercing through one of the lads. He also turns out to be the son of Arputham (Mysskin) and Leela (Ramya Krishnan). Arputham is a self-proclaimed religious healer whose belief stems from a rather incredible story, one where a tsunami hits just as he is about to attempt suicide in the ocean and he ends up being the only survivor, thanks to a statue of the Lord that keeps him floating in the water! Finally, there is the story of Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathi), a transwoman who had run away from home years before due to a fear of not being accepted for who she was. Shilpa is back now and wants to rebuild a relationship with her family.
The film is a riot from the word go! The sequences where Vaembu and Mugilan plot to bring the corpse out of the house, while there are guests still inside, are hilarious and brilliantly staged. Similarly, what starts off as a hunt to buy a new TV leads the bunch of lads on a crazy adventure and there is a big surprise waiting here right at the end of it! Vijay Sethupathi rocks in the guise of Shilpa and her attempts to woo her family back whilst facing ridicule and abuse from every section of society is highly endearing and authentic. Only the portions of Arputham drag a little, I felt. His monologues get a little annoying at one point, especially when the rest of the film is moving at a different pace altogether.
For me, the biggest win of Super Deluxe is how each story finds its own beautiful closure. Shilpa realizes that it doesn’t matter what the world thinks of her, what matters truly is the opinion of those who mean the world to her. Vaembu and Mugilan realize that the only way to make an arranged marriage work is to well..stop trying too hard to make it work! There are many films that we’ve seen with a pertinent Father-Son moment and here for a change, there’s a really candid Mother-Son conversation, between Leela and her son towards the end, that goes a long way in clearing up the air for both of them. And the lads who just wanted to watch some harmless porn, finally get what they wanted too..but not without a twist that’s out of the world! It is fascinating how Kumararaja neither judges nor expects the audience to pass a judgement on the obvious amoral shades of most characters. He calls a spade a spade and watches you root for these characters shamelessly nevertheless. If this is not the hallmark of a great filmmaker, I’m not sure what is!
Kumararaja is known for an ungodly number of takes for each of his shots. Well, you can see the perfection on display here. He has brought the best out of every actor and for me, the pick of the lot was the toddler Ashwanth who plays Shilpa’s son Rasukutty. He has matched Vijay Sethupathi frame for frame and this says something! The screenplay for the film has been shared between four screenwriters: Kumararaja himself, Nalan Kumarasamy, Neelan K Sekar and Mysskin. They are all incredible filmmakers in their own right and the end product is like the perfect lasagna that is beautifully layered and melts in your mouth (albeit a non-vegetarian one)! The film also reminded me a bit of the cult Hollywood comedy ‘Four Rooms’, in which one segment each was written by Robert Rodriguez, Allison Anders, Quentin Tarantino and Alexandre Rockwell. But that was more of an anthology. With all the existential questions it tries to answer, Super Deluxe is not. Super Deluxe is an epic. It is a tryst in the lap of cinematic luxury that is afforded only rarely in our parts.
Overall rating: 3.5/5
