Viewing a film in a theatre has met the same fate as eating out. It’s no longer a family affair and not just because nobody has the time. It’s become personal and at the consumer’s convenience. Just like food can be ordered and eaten at home, people don’t mind waiting for films to be shown on digital platforms and never mind the compromises in both experiences. Everything is becoming mechanical. It’s no longer about the experience. Food is more to fill the stomach than savouring the taste like watching a film is considered just ‘time pass’. It’s the difference between a gourmet and a gobbler. The argument about filmmakers giving audiences what they deserve will never die. Who decides? Why do creators have this condescending attitude that consumers are intellectually inferior? Actually cinema is purely about evoking emotions , not manipulating them. The experience is empty when we forget to feel the film in our quest to figure out things the director probably did not even intend conveying.
Thiagarajan Kumararaja is a Michelin star chef among cinema auteurs. It may just be his second directorial effort, but ‘Super Deluxe’ is a cauldron simmering with carefully selected ingredients cooked to near perfection and served piping hot leaving you smacking your lips. You don’t order for dessert because you don’t want to replace the taste and wish you could consume more of the main course. To heighten the experience you have to savour it in the right atmosphere. The sounds are as important as the sights.
In the climax of ‘Aaranya Kaandam’, Kumararaja’s first film, a goon asks a kid whose father he’s saved, if he loves him a lot. “Not really but he’s my dad,” says the kid with a smile. That’s the underlying philosophy in ‘Super Deluxe’ too, that life is about choices, compulsions and chance. The dialogue sounds cathartic because there’s a similar kid in ‘SD’ who dotes on his father unconditionally, even though he deserted his mother only to reappear as a transgender. While the characters were interconnected by crime in ‘AK’ the lives of diverse people converge in a carefully plotted and executed climax in ‘SD’. “This is not something that just happened. This cannot be one of those things. This was not just a matter of chance. These strange things happen all the time,” says the narrator of ‘Magnolia’ a brilliant film about coincidences I was reminded of while watching ‘SD’.
A married woman is in bed with her lover from college when ‘la mort d’amor’ or death during sex kills him. You can call it a happy ending for him but it’s the beginning of a nightmare for her. There’s the kid rehearsing a fitting welcome for his estranged dad, four kids with raging testosterone bunking class to watch porn, a lecherous police officer who will not leave anything in skirts, a former porn star who’s now a single mother with a husband who’s battling with beliefs. Each character is as carefully etched as the scenes are lovingly chiselled. The transition between scenes is effortless and appears to have been achieved while writing rather than leaving it to the editor, also making you worry about what’s happening to the others in the meantime. The director does not believe cinema is just a visual medium. The film is an aural delight with the tiniest of sounds and mutterings captured. Every single set piece is carefully placed be it in a police station, cluttered middle class dwelling or an abandoned factory. Kumararaja loves chasing his characters down claustrophobic corridors with a steadycam as if saying life is an inescapable maze. Look at how the cinematographer seems to kneel down to shoot from the kid’s viewpoint whenever he appears rather than looking down upon him. This was evident in ‘AK’ too.
A goon spouts philosophy, a frustrated husband rants about politicians, caste and discrimination while a non-judgemental kid asks his father who’s reappeared in a saree valid questions about his physical identity. The humour is sardonic thrown into seemingly serious situations mirroring the irony of life. A wife complains about her husband’s lack of eating etiquette when her dead boyfriend breaks wind noisily in the back seat. Watch a smile flit across the face of the transgender’s wife when his ‘pallu’ falls reflecting her predicament. She doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The irony is when he says he understands her situation as a woman. You may not relate to any of the characters perched on a moral high ground but the director makes you empathise with their dilemmas. The weakest portion is the couple trying to dispose a corpse . Some scenes seem long drawn, but Kumararaja wants you to soak in the situation to feel the effect. Crucial scenes are cooked on low flame to enhance the after taste.
The director talks about everything from the difference between what’s right and the accepted, to the ambiguity of faith making you ponder instead of thrusting pop philosophy down your throat. Existential questions are asked not answered.
The acting is uniformly brilliant with the kid Ashwath simply remarkable. He’s effortless in front of the camera and note his voice modulation. Vijay Sethupathi’s is a brave performance. Samantha surprises while for Fahadh the character is a cakewalk. Ramya is brilliant whenever she appears. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s background score is a separate character complementing with pregnant periods of silence.
‘Super Deluxe’ is a heady, wholesome cinematic experience. What seems a mere coincidence is connected by unseen dots? You plan many things in life but most just happen.
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