Super Deluxe is Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s second film after his maiden project, Aaranya Kaandam, a neo-noir film that won two National Awards. The film begins with Vembu (Samantha), a woman whose marriage to Mugil (Fahadh Faasil) is miserably failing, inviting her ex-boyfriend home. Vembu’s boyfriend, Kanna, dies in the saddle. Now, Vembu has no one to help her except her husband Mugil who is expected to return home anytime soon after his acting class and she has to disclose the adultery to him. Parallely, the director narrates another story of four teenagers, who visit a DVD shop to buy 3D porn. Much to their shock, they see Leela, who is the mother of one of them in the film. The boy rushes back to stab his mother, but slips on the staircase and stabs himself. Leela cries for help and asks her husband Dhanasekar, who has changed his name to Arputham (Mysskin) to arrange for money. He says he will cure his son by offering prayers to God.
The story now moves to Jyothi (Gayathrie Shankar), who awaits the return of her estranged husband after seven and a half years. Her son Rasukutti is excited to see his dad for the first time and ends up seeing him dressed in a saree and wearing a wig. While the family and society alienate him, Jyothi and Rasukutti accept him. This makes for the first half of Super Deluxe. The dialogues and the screenplay in the first half make us laugh and also think on what life is all about. We are also introduced to a ruthless sex-starved cop Berlin (Bagavathi Perumal), who annoys us with his philosophies and mannerisms. The second half of the film is about how Thiagarajan Kumararaja puts these stories together and takes us towards the climax and makes us realise that Super Deluxe is yet another cult film in the history of Tamil cinema. Yuvan’s background music, in which he has used some of Ilaiyaraja’s old songs, has complemented the screenplay well and reminds us of Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch’s classics. We see the posters from their films in a couple of scenes. PS Vinod and Nirav Shah’s cinematography have provided specific colour tones that go well with the story.
Vijay Sethupathi as a transgender, outshines everyone with his performance. Especially, the scene where he drapes his saree, wears his wig and checks himself out in the mirror before asking his wife, who is in shock and tears, Naan azhaga irukena? (Do I look beautiful?). Samantha as Vembu excels. This film has been written by Thiagarajan Kumararaja along with Neelan K Sekar, Mysskin and Nalan Kumarasamy. The performance of the four youngsters cannot go unnoticed. Fahadh Faasil as Mugil makes us laugh even as he laughs and disturbs us while he struggles. The 175-minute film has a few flaws, but as the suspense keeps unfolding with every other scene, it makes you move on. The film is a winner and will have repeat audience.
