Super Deluxe

How does one classify the Tamil language movie Super Deluxe? The name doesn’t hold any clue to the contents and a viewer chooses to watch the film solely on reviews and the stellar starcast. Super Deluxe has morality at its core and the viewers are forced to think about the situations unravelling on the screen. This movie is a roller coaster journey across multiple genres like sexuality, gender discrimination, gender identity, fidelity, lust, science, religiosity and faith. It is funny in parts (also has dark comedy), violent at times (not physical, very cerebral where we feel the characters mental anguish), and also philosophical at some places (it carries the message that we are all one yet different).

With four parallel story tracks which converge near the end, Super Deluxe packs quite a punch. 

We have an arc in which a transgender grapples with his emotions when he returns to his family after disappearing for seven years. In these seven years he comes to terms with his sexuality and undergoes the necessary surgical procedures. Vijay Sethupati is outstanding in the role of Manickan aka Shilpa. This man has such a diverse oeuvre! No contemporary hindi or marathi actor would dare to experiment with such roles. Sethupati’s Shilpa is vulnerable yet confident, conscious of her looks yet shy and has the desperate need to connect with her ‘wife’ and son. The child artist who plays the role of Rassi Kutty is one talent to watch out for. Shilpa’s encounters with her family, later at her son’s school, and then at the police station give us goosebumps. At the police station her path crosses with a cruel police man who is also involved in another parallel story. Fortunately Shilpa realises that her wife and son are willing to accept her ‘as she is’. She gets her redemption. This is one happy ending I was rooting for. Sethupati’s career defining role deserves a much wider audience. It is so good. No where does he looks obscene and cheap. It is multi-layered and nuanced. This man emotes very well with is face and vocal intonation.

In a different parallel arc there is a newly wed couple which has to dispose of a dead body! The recently deceased person happens to be the ex-lover of Vaembu, the female protagonist played by Samantha Prabhu. While indulging in an illicit sexual act, Vaembu’s lover dies of a heart attack. Both the leads, Fahad Fasil and Samantha Prabhu seem nonchalant in the way they deal with this macabre situation. They have to contend with the cruel, corrupt police officer which Shilpa had to deal with earlier. Blackmail and threats of bodily harm are made. Eventually this couple is rescued due to a flying projectile which removes the police officer rather permanently. The couple is then shown attempting to kindle some emotion and love in their relationship. Both have very open and candid conversations while indulging in the act of disposing the dead body. This movie was made in 2019 and viewers today would easily draw parallels with what happened a year ago in Delhi (Shraddha Walkar - Poonawala case). Life imitates art!

Then we have a group of four teenagers who are shown doing what most young boys of that age do. They are looking for porn! They end up at a friends empty house and star watching Mallu Uncut. To their horror, in this Mallu porn movie, they find one of their friends’ mother as an actor! All hell breaks loose. This boy, Soori, loses control over himself and goes after his mother in furious rage. While trying to attack his mother he slips and stabs himself in the abdomen. Here begins a tale of morality and faith. Soori’s father is shown to be an evangelist who is now questioning his belief. Just the previous night this evangelist met Shilpa who recounts her experiences which force him to question his faith. Somehow Soori’s actress mother is able to convince the doctors to perform the much needed surgery on Soori. His father also gets hold of a treasure in the most unexpected way. Their financial problems get resolved.

The boys somehow get entangled with the underworld, a broken TV, some theft, encounter with an extraterrestrial who is philosophical and also has robust knowledge of science and such bizarre situations. The teenagers story and the story of the evangelist, though separate are linked to each other.

Kaaji’s (one of the four teenagers) brief interactions with the extraterrestrial are simply marvelous. The female who plays the extraterrestrial provides the philosophical backdrop for what we see on the screen.

At the end, everyone gets happy. Except of course the man who dies in a sexual frenzy and the cruel policeman. 

Super Deluxe is beautifully shot in shades of blue and the director has been able to extract wonderful performances from all the actors.

Personally, after watching Super Deluxe, my views about gender identity have definitely changed. I now feel that one has to come to terms with his or her identity.