Super Deluxe (film)



Super Deluxe is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language neo-noir black comedy film co-written and directed by Thiagarajan Kumararaja. It features Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, Samantha Akkineni, Ramya Krishnan, Vijay Ram, Abdul Jabbar, Noble K James, Naveen, and Jayanth in leading roles in separate segments while Mysskin, Gayathrie, Ashwanth Ashokkumar, and Bagavathi Perumal play supporting roles. P. S. Vinod and Nirav Shah handled the cinematography, while Yuvan Shankar Raja was the music director. Directors Nalan Kumarasamy, Neelan K. Sekar and Mysskin have written the additional screenplay for this film. The film was released in theatres on 29 March 2019 and received universal acclaim.

Plot
A hyperlink weaved on four subplots with few characters spilling across subplots. One subplot involves Vaembu, Mugil, and Berlin, a cop; another plot involves Manickam alias Shilpa, Jyothi, Rasukutty, and Berlin; the third plot involves Leela, Dhanasekaran alias Arputham, their son Soori, and Mohan; and the last plot involves five friends: Balaji (Gaaji), Soori, Mohan, Vasanth (Mutta Pupps) and Thuyavan.

Vaembu and Mugil's plot starts in their home with death of Vaembu's ex-boyfriend during sex with Vaembu, while her husband Mugil was away,as Vembu's marital life with mugil is not good. Mugil returns home and figures out the incident. Vaembu confesses the accidental sex and eventual death. Mugil refuses Vaembu's idea of surrendering herself, saying it would ruin his image. With uninvited guests at home, they struggle to contain the situation. They manage to get the corpse out of town but still caught by Berlin, who expects a sexual favor from Vaembu as a deal to contain the situation. Mugil, with a confused state, tells Vaembu the consequences if they refuse. Shattered, Vaembu still refuses, but with no options left them, Berlin tries to take advantage of the situation and make a move. As he approaches Vaembu, a TV hits him on his head and he dies.They dispose both the dead bodies. Mugil forgives Vembu and they reconcile.

Shilpa's plot starts with a family eagerly expecting a reunion of Jyothi with her husband Manickam, who absconded seven years before. To their shock, Manickam arrives as a transwoman named Shilpa. The family reacts on his transformation. Their son, Rasukutty, takes Shilpa to school to introduce his friends, and prove them wrong as they mock him for being a test-tube baby. A cop suspects Shilpa and drags her to the police station. Berlin takes advantage of the situation and forces a blow-job from Shilpa, who also faces humiliation in school and is granted no entry. Shilpa plans to return to Bombay and buys ticket. While returning home from school Shilpa loses Rasukutty. Shilpa is in search of Rasukutty in a desperate condition, at last finds him at home. Rasukutty finds out her travel plan and confronts her emotionally. Shilpa cancels her plan and begins to spend time with his family.

The boys' plot starts with all boys gathering to watch pornography in Thuyavan's home. As soon as the porn starts, Soori is left in shock upon seeing his mother Leela in the movie. He breaks the TV in anger and runs away crying. Mohan follows to console him. Thuyavan, afraid of his father about the broken TV, takes the help of other friends to find money to buy a new TV. On failing to cut a deal with local don, they are left with an additional burden of more lump sum requirement before EOD. They decide to steal money from a Seth. They initially sneak into his home and escape out with few currency notes. But later the find that those are demonetized currency and plans to steal from Seth again. This time when they enter Seth's home, they are confronted by a girl. She appears to have magical powers and strips down to reveal she is an alien. And Seth dies just then and the girl says that she needs a pair now. The girl takes interest in Balaji, one of the boys and clones him. One clone stays with her and the other joins his friends. The friends get the money from her and then they buy a new TV and throw away the old one which co-incidentally is the TV which hits Berlin on his head and results in his death.

Leela's plot starts with Soori trying to kill her, but he stabs himself accidentally by slipping down. He is taken to the hospital, and his father Arputham is informed about this accident. Arputham is a lone survivor from a tsunami who believes that he was saved by the god (in the form of a stone), and he devotes himself to the god. Learning about Soori's condition, he rushes to the hospital and brings the wounded Soori to his chapel, believing that his prayers would cure him. Leela forcefully takes back Soori to the hospital and struggles to arrange medical expenses. Arputham, who struggles to arrange money, gets confused with faith in God after a short conversation with Shilpa the day before. He accidentally breaks the statue and finds diamonds in it. It is from the Italian pirate ship which got sunk. He uses the diamonds and saves Soori.

Just before the end credits, the three friends who were in pursuit of buying a new TV goes to a porn movie. The movie starts with a doctor speaking about the existence of life and then a sequence of scenes follows where various characters explain the origin of life, the design pattern and similarity of universe,solar system and atomic structure of atoms. And finally the movie ends with the opening title of the porn movie which is "Vaazhvin Ragasiyam" [Secret of Life].

Cast

 * Vijay Sethupathi as Shilpa (Manickam), a married man with a son who returns home after becoming a transgender
 * Ramya Krishnan as Leela, a pornographic actress whose son injures himself after he finds out his mother’s profession
 * Fahadh Faasil as Mugil, Vaembu’s husband who is devastated after he is cheated on but helps her to hide the body of her dead ex-boyfriend
 * Samantha Akkineni as Vaembu, Mugil’s wife who engages in scandalous intercourse with her ex-boyfriend, who suddenly dies in bed with her
 * Gayathrie as Jyothi, Shilpa’s wife who is devastated after seeing her husband return as a transgender
 * Mysskin as Arputham (Dhanasekaran), Leela’s husband and a Catholic preacher who relies on religious healing to save his injured son
 * Bagavathi Perumal as Berlin, a corrupt sub-inspector who expresses lust for Shilpa and later Vaembu
 * Ramana as Ramasamy
 * Vijay Ram as Balaji (Gaaji)
 * Naveen as Soori
 * Jayanth as Mohan
 * Abdul Jabbar as Thuyavan
 * Noble K. James as Vasanth (Mutta Pupps)
 * Ashwanth Ashokkumar as Rasukutty
 * Mirnalini Ravi as Seth Girl (Alien)
 * Manushyaputhiran as Doctor in a film (cameo)

Production
In October 2016, director Thiagarajan Kumararaja announced his next film after a gap of five years.The film was initially titled as "Aneedhi Kadhaikal" and renamed during the progress of filming .Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil were reported to be featuring in the lead roles. Later, Samantha was signed to play a female lead role. Kumararaja also produced the film along with East West Dream Work Entertainment and Alchemy Vision Workz. After completing the first shooting schedule of Junga, Sethupathi began filming for Super Deluxe. He plays a full-fledged feminine character in the film. At first, Ramya Krishnan was approached to play the role of Leela in the film, but due to some problems on the director's side she couldn't continue. So in order to replace her, Nadhiya Moidu was approached for the role but again due to some problems, Ramya Krishnan replaced her and was back onboard becoming the second lead of the film after Samantha.

Release
The film had its theatrical release on 29 March 2019. The film was banned in Malaysia because of extra adult content in the film.

Marketing
The official trailer of the film was unveiled on 22 February 2019.

Critical reception
The film got rave reviews from the critics. Baradwaj Rangan, in his review of the film for Film Companion praised the director on how he had concentrated on both the larger structure of the story and also on the minute details. He wrote "This is an utterly unique film, a brave film. While watching Super Deluxe, I felt what Pauline Kael described in her review of The Godfather: Part II: “the exploding effects keep accumulating. About midway, I began to feel that the film was expanding in my head like a soft bullet.” I’ll just say I’ve never seen anything like this in Tamil cinema, with its mix of the sacred and the profane, the epic and the intimate, the earthly and the otherworldly, the pop-cultural and the philosophical. It’s a film you want to view as much with a microscope (zooming in on the details) as a telescope (zooming out to the bigger picture)."

Srivatsan S, reviewing for The Hindu wrote "No other filmmaker has probably romanticized the Tamil cinema universe with pop culture references as much as Kumararaja. In one of the earliest stretch, a character says, “Dai rascal! Enna maranthutiya?” For a moment, it felt as though Kumararaja was asking this question to us: it’s been eight years since he made a film. If Super Deluxe is what you get from a filmmaker who was in exile, then you don't mind waiting a few years from now till he comes up with his next eccentric film.". M Suganth, in his review of the film for Times of India wrote "There is black comedy, double entendres, swear words, WTF moments, political and social commentary, romance, sentiment and even a musing on what it means to be life on Earth. There is ambition, genius, and also a beating heart."