(These are
transcripts of Anna M.M. Vetticad’s video reviews aired
on Rajya Sabha TV on September
1, 2019.)
Hello and
welcome to this new film review segment in Colours of India. My name is Anna
M.M. Vetticad.
On this
show we are celebrating the great diversity of Indian cinema. And so today, I
will speak to you about the Tamil film Super
Deluxe and the Malayalam film Thanneermathan Dinangal.
Super Deluxe is directed by Thiagarajan
Kumararaja and has a large cast packed with stars.
This is a
film with a multi-strand narrative. Its four strands – or sub-plots if you
prefer to call it that – are connected in unexpected ways.
The first
strand features an unhappily married couple played by Samantha Akkineni and
Fahadh Faasil. The two are trying to get rid of a corpse without being caught.
The second
strand is about a little boy awaiting the return of a father who abandoned him
years earlier. When the Dad finally comes home, it turns out that he is now a
trans woman who goes by the name Shilpa.
Shilpa is
played by Vijay Sethupathi.
The third
sub-plot involves a group of teenaged boys off to watch a porn film in secret.
The fourth
stars Ramya Krishnan as a woman who works in porn films.
Super Deluxe has a beautifully balanced tone.
On the one hand it is extremely funny. On the other hand it is extremely
sensitive while dealing with serious subjects like compatibility in marriage,
the marginalisation of the LGBT+ community, sexual violence and the hypocrisy
of men who want their OWN mothers to be devis
though they take OTHER women lightly.
I could
not relate much to the switch to fantasy towards the end of the story about the
porn-watching boys, but there is SO MUCH to love in this film.
The
performances in Super Deluxe are
top-notch. The one that has got most attention since its release is Vijay
Sethupathi playing a trans woman. Now in an ideal world, TRANS actors would
play TRANS characters. Indian cinema has not yet got to that stage, with rare
exceptions like last year’s Malayalam film Aabhaasam
which starred the trans actor Sheetal Shyam. What we have in most of our films
is MALE actors playing trans characters. Till we get to a more evolved stage in
our casting, it is worth pointing out that a major male star playing a trans
character seriously risks denting his ‘macho’ image in our patriarchal society.
So this too is perhaps worth celebrating as a baby step forward since our
society prefers to pretend that the trans community does not even exist.
One of the
most moving aspects of Super Deluxe
is the little boy Raasukutty’s absolutely non-judgemental response when he
finds that the man who fathered him is in fact a woman.
Raasukutty
is my personal hero. And his non-judgemental mother is my heroine.
Super Deluxe is now streaming on Netflix.
It is
funny, it is brave, it is thought-provoking, and frankly, it is an act of
social rebellion as much as it is a film.
****
****
Thanneermathan Dinangal literally
means Watermelon Days. The title comes from the large quantities of watermelon
juice that the hero consumes at the food kiosk next to his school. He goes
there on a regular basis to pour his heart out to his gang of friends.
Mathew
Thomas plays the teenaged hero Jaison who is struggling with multiple teenaged
problems. He is in love with his classmate Keerthy, played by Anaswara Rajan,
who is not interested in him. He is being tormented by the school bully. He is
struggling with exams. And as if life is not tough enough, a new teacher starts
picking on him and him alone.
Thanneermathan Dinangal is sweet
without being sugary.
The lead
actors are cute without being overly cutesy.
And
although it is hilarious, it does not trivialise the problems of teenagers.
In fact
the beauty of this film is that it plays out so naturally that it feels as if
real people allowed the filmmaker to place cameras around their homes and
school to capture what is going on in their real lives.
This is a
thinking comedy. In a country where we are used to commercial cinema showing
men stalking women that they like and portraying that stalking as a legitimate
form of courtship, Jaison and Keerthy from Thanneermathan Dinangal hold out a lesson for filmmakers. In fact
one of the most striking aspects of this film is a young girl telling a young
boy that she likes him BECAUSE he did not pester her when she turned down his
romantic overtures.
Thanneermathan Dinangal is one of
those rewarding films that is thoroughly enjoyable and also has a very
important point to make.
****
****
Link to the video of these reviews aired
on Rajya Sabha TV:
A longer review of Thanneermathan Dinangal by Anna M.M. Vetticad was published
on Firstpost on August 11, 2019:
Photographs courtesy:
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