Super Deluxe has unleashed a storm. It would not be wrong to say that the transgender community is split on how to view this film starring Vijay Sethupathi. As a researcher in transgender literature, I found it tough to separate the strands in my mind. Anyone reviewing Super Deluxe must look at two strands—the film as a whole, and the subtext, with specific reference to the transgender community.
To begin with, hats off to the four boys, each one representing a subplot in the film. And to the stellar cast—Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, Samantha Akkineni, Gayathrie, Bagavathi Perumal, Ramya Krishnan and Mysskin. Sethupathi plays Manickam aka Shilpa, a transgender person. My heart went out to little Ashwanth Ashokkumar, who plays Shilpa's son, Rasukutty.
Director Thiagarajan Kumararaja works his magic with tightly packed scenes and awesome portrayal of characters and their situations. He skilfully takes the viewer through the stories of the women in the film. It is almost like you have been there, seen it. The dingy, narrow stairways shown in clustered housing properties offer an almost direct link to tangled situations in everyday life. Demolished buildings and abandoned spaces show our neglected, broken relationships. Kumararaja and the cinematographers have connected emotion and image masterfully. So, no complaints on that front.
Then, what is the problem?
The transgender community's complaint has been that the film strengthens stereotypes. I will point out just two instances.
1
Shilpa and Rasukutty are walking through a crowd when she loses him. Worried sick, she hunts for him. A healer comforts her saying the kid must have gone home straight. Shilpa tells him that she herself has kidnapped two children in Mumbai. Children who were then maimed and pushed into the begging trade. She tells him that she fears the same will happen to her son.
Transgender persons are struggling to make themselves visible in a transphobic society. In such a situation, what message does this scene convey? A transgender person is confessing on silver screen that she has kidnapped children. A mother watching this will hold her child closer the next time she sees a transgender person.
2
When Rasukutty asks Shilpa how she earns her bread, she says that you just need to clap, and people will give you money. Begging and sex work is the last resort for a transgender person. The general public prefers not to associate with, employ or work under transgender people. The scene reinforces the notion that a transgender person has no skill sets and is unemployable. It does not come through that begging is something that the society has forced them to do. It was never their choice. It was the only option society gave them.
In the film, Kumararaja has touched upon sensitive issues like infidelity, the stereotyping that an actress faces and the challenges that transgender persons face in public and private spaces—everything from harassment in police custody to social shaming and unavailability of a gender neutral toilet. But, in certain scenes, he has faltered. Those scenes should have been done with much more sensitivity and care towards a community which is already suffering deeply.
He brings the film to an acceptable and inclusive conclusion. In Shilpa's case, Rasukutty captures our undivided attention and heart. The unbiased mind of a child understands only unconditional love. He opens his arms and his heart to his father—in any form or identity. It is that openness that the transgender community yearns for.
And, that is where Super Deluxe has failed them.
Leeny Elango is a research scholar, working on autobiographies by transgender persons
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the publication.
