Super Delux movie review

*SUPER DELUXE* 

By Venkat Raghavan

Tamil Movie I saw last night)

*A game changer is several respects.*

-A movie with three subplots.  Three stories that run concurrently seemingly unconnected which for their conclusion and the characters’s redemption *cross each other’s path* 

- The movie which is overtly sexual, where motives, actions and behaviors are lecherous; where dialogues are bold and explicit YET surprisingly has no, absolutely NO woman sexual exposure.  (For a movie that would get anyway a big A certificate, the director uses no glamour!)  

- A movie which is co-written by three great “parallel” filmmakers/directors of our times Mysskin, Nalan Kumarasamy and this movie’s Director Kumararaja! 

- A movie that uses yester years POP for the thematic and background songs.  Disco Dancer, Macarena and many Tamil movie ones.  Of our times. 80s!!!

-A movie that has a “paint” effect to its cinematography.  Most of the movie has low lighting.  The colors accentuate the setting.  For instance, an accidental diviner from Tsunami whose dwelling is blue, the female protagonist whose house is deep yellow and reddish hues etc.  Many shots recede to a narrow angle as we get to see the proceedings from a narrow alley or a corner. A metaphor for metaphysical relationship we have with the world -in that limited, where our perception and actuality vie with each other.  

A movie with no songs or fight scenes but a run time of nearly THREE hours!!   Even otherwise a slow movie, but contrastingly happening on every frame.  

The genre of the movie is hard to say.  There is crime, an understated humor that props from the absurdity of situation, emotions of people that arise from jolting events!   Is it a crime, humor or drama.  Just let us say a dark movie.  

A movie with an incredible casting.  *Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha, Fahad Fazil, Ramya Krishnan,* even if they are not superstars, artists who command huge fee and a standing in the industry.  All of them portraying characters that are negative, dark and vulnerable. 

Imagine Samantha, (the leading heroine in Tamil and Telugu until her marriage recently) playing a promiscuous woman who has an encounter when husband is away! 

I am not giving anymore on the movie as it would take away the surprise elements that are strewn throughout the movie, despite its slowness.   At the end, it is a movie that goes beyond its scope of cinema and tells us to view the whole life differently.  A bit of edification.  

I am sure many of us may not be comfortable in our seats while watching this movie.  It is a “in your face” movie.  

*But this is a milestone movie in Tamil.* I would be surprised if it doesn’t walk away with top honours at the national level.