Super Deluxe movie review: A dark film in a neutral light

Director: Thiyagarajan Kumararaja

Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha, Fahad Fassil, Ramya Krishnan, Mysshkin

Super Deluxe is a hyperlink film where multiple stories with various characters take place simultaneously, but yet they don’t converge at one point. Instead, based on chaos theory, each subplot has great influence on the other, but they move away for their own ending.  What is common in the all plot lines are the 'sexual undertones'.

 

It opens with Vaembu (Samantha) whose ex-boyfriend dies in her apartment while they are involved in lovemaking. Her distressed husband Mughil(Fahad Fassil) an aspiring actor agrees to help her to dispose the corpse, but on the condition that she should sign a divorce paper once the job is accomplished.

In yet another track, four teenage boys bunk school to watch a ‘bittu padam’. Unfortunately, they see one of the boy’s mom (Ramya Krishnan as Leela) as the porn star on screen and all hell breaks loose for him. He breaks the TV and runs to kill his mom, but gets himself injured grievously. Now Leela who is jobless runs from one doctor to another to save her son as her husband Dhanashekar is rechristened as Arpudham (Mysshkin) after surviving a tsunami and now becomes estranged with his newfound 'God.'

Then we have this little boy Rasukutty (Ashwanth) who waits eagerly for his father who ran away from home six years back. He does return from Mumbai and is now different: as a woman – from Manickam to trans-woman Shilpa.

And there’s this lewd cop (Bhagavathy Perumal) who misuses his power and goes to any extent to satisfy his lust.

Though everyone contributes his or her best in terms of histrionics, the ultimate show stealer is Vijay Sethupathi. Despite his mass actor image, he had the guts to pick up such a dark character and portrays it with effortless ease. Samantha who has a slightly longer screen space does her part well. Fahad Faasil is terrific.  Ramya Krishan and Mysshkin prove their versatility even as the bunch of boys is excellent. Bhagavathy Perumal is terrorizing and you feel like strangling his throat. The director touches upon several issues from sexual abuse, transgender’s plight, porn film industry, religion, power misuse, victimization and finally the meaning of life. Though nothing is explicit, you still feel things unfold in a raw manner and there’s liberal use of cuss words, double entrendes etc. Thankfully, he is not judgmental and the humorous tone given to the actions give you some sort of relief in an otherwise disturbing flick.

On technical front, Yuvan Shankar Raja’s background score is brilliant and he also lets silence speak in some of the crucial scenes. Visuals are exhilarating in the hands of PD Vinod and Nirav Shah. The slow pace of the film is a little concern and the run time (2 hours 56 minutes) is too long.