Super Deluxe (2019)

Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Story: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, Samantha Akkineni, Ramya Krishnan

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Time: 176 minutes

Bottom-line: Grips you in the first half, loses all control in the second

Being heavily awed by Kumararaja’s Aaranya Kaandam, I just had to watch his next film (after an eight-year gap!), Super Deluxe. Featuring an ensemble cast with Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, Samantha Akkineni and Ramya Krishnan in the lead roles, and Mysskin, Gayathrie and Bagavathi Perumal in the supporting roles, this anthology tale is ­the best example of “What if Quentin Tarantino directed a Tamil film?”

 

Sethupathi as Shilpa (recognise him?)

The first story is about a strained marriage between Mugil (Faasil) and Vaembu (Samantha). When her ex-boyfriend comes home, they have sex, during which her ex dies. The other problem: someone has seen the corpse. How do the couple dispose of the body while confronting their own differences and conflicts? The second tale is about Jyothi (Gayathrie) and her son, Rasakutty, who have been waiting several years for Jyothi's husband to return. When he finally does arrive, he has transformed himself into a transwoman, Shilpa (Sethupathi). How do his wife and son, and more importantly, society, respond to his change? The third track revolves around five teens, who decide to watch a porno, only to find out that the actress is one boy's (Soori) mother, Leela (Ramya). An enraged Soori goes to kill his mother, but he stabs himself by accident. How does Leela try to save her son, while also convincing her overly-devotional husband, Arputham (Mysskin), to help?

 

Samantha as Vaembu and Faasil as Mugil

The film has all the strengths and weaknesses of a Tarantino film: dark humour, quirky characters, sharp dialogue, homages, surprising (and often funny) plot twists, and at the same time, excessive dialogue, swear words, noise and way too much screen time. The film is given an adult rating for its content, and rightly so. Even though nothing is explicitly shown, a lot of topics discussed in the film are considered taboo, the most striking one being the character of Shilpa. Sethupathi has done a simply outstanding job in portraying a transgender in the most honest way possible. Some of his lines are worth reflecting on: “Just like how we sometimes wear the slippers on the wrong foot, God made me a man by mistake,” and also, “We cut nails and our hair, so why I can’t I change my body like this?” Ramya Krishnan’s role as Leela is arguably her boldest and most emotional role till date. The Samantha-Faasil couple has also done really well, but I felt a good bit of crying could have been reduced for the former's character. 

 

Ramya Krishnan as Leela

All the subplots move at a rapid pace and the intermission is placed at the right time. However, the second half of the film digresses too much into philosophy, too suddenly. The Samantha-Faasil track has all its ends tied up but the other tracks become too weird. Almost all the humour is brilliantly written, and the subtle homages are nicely incorporated into the script. There are many similarities between this film and Aaranya Kaandam too, in terms of story, characters and many of Kumararaja’s elements. Both have a lover couple, a father-son duo, and a gang (gangsters in AK, teenagers in SD); while the main theme of AK was various depictions of male impotence, the stories in SD all revolve around sex. There are references to other films too, some more obvious than the rest. I also liked how Kumararaja sets his scenes such that there is some music playing which cleverly depicts the scenario (or "situation song" as it is called). 

 

The gang of boys

I guess Super Deluxe is one such film where things are so quirky that it appeals. I feel a lot of scenes are there just for the sake of humour and don't add to the main story, and several sequences have very lengthy build-ups. Nevertheless, the acting performances of almost all actors are commendable, and of course, for a Tamil film, this is indeed a bold attempt to create a different kind of movie.

My Rating: 3/5

Aaranya Kaandam (2011)

English translation: Jungle Chapter

Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Story: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sampath Raj, Yasmin Ponnappa

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Time: 113 minutes

Bottom-line: Violent, avant-garde and immensely entertaining

Edhu dharumam?
Edhu thavayo, adhuve dharumam.  
Newcomer Thiagarajan Kumararaja stuns the Tamil film-going crowd with his gangster flick, Aaranya Kaandam. Starring Jackie Shroff, Sampath Raj and Yasmin Ponnappa in the lead roles, with Ravi Krishna, Master Vasanth and Guru Somasundaram in the supporting roles, this is a story of how the lives of six people change within a day. Far more violent than most Tamil films, Aaranya Kaandam had a tough time with the censor board, ultimately getting an A certificate after 52 cuts.

 

Krishna as Sappai (left) and Shroff as Singaperumal

Singaperumal (Shroff) is an ageing gangster in Chennai. He has kept a young girl, Subbu (Ponnappa) as a prisoner in his house, hoping to have sex with her, but he finds himself impotent. Having had enough of Singaperumal’s abuse, one of his men, Sappai (Krishna) and Subbu, plan to rob him and escape. Another of Singaperumal’s henchmen is Pasupathi (Sampath), who proposes that they take on a risky deal involving cocaine worth 2 crores. When Singaperumal refuses, Pasupathi mocks his old age and offers to handle the deal himself. The stash actually belongs to Singaperumal’s arch-rival, Gajendran, another gangster. En route to the pickup spot, Singaperumal orders his men to kill Pasupathi, but the latter escapes. Meanwhile, the person actually delivering the drugs drinks too much and dies, and the cocaine comes into the possession of a poor father-son duo, Kalaya (Guru) and Kodukapuli (Vasanth). As the tales of Singaperumal, Gajendran, Sappai, Subbu, Pasupathi, Kalaya and Kodukapuli get intertwined, the result is a bloody fight for survival.

 

Sampath as Pasupathi

The title is the name of one of the chapters of the epic, Ramayana. Here, the reference is that everyone involved in the movie "turns into an animal", in the sense that they forget all emotions and only focus on survival. Also, notice how the characters have the names of animals – Singam is "lion", Pasu is "cow", and Gajendran is "elephant." The script moves at a breakneck pace, with every scene and dialogue fitting into the story, smoothly leading from one act to the next (in particular, the whole speaker phone scene is so well-written that it's impossible to expect what's coming). The shift from one track to another and the way Kumararaja ties everything together in the end again is superb. In Subbu’s tale, I felt the ending wasn’t “karma”-tic enough, but that would be the only fault I find in the story.

 

Vasanth as Kodukapuli (left) and Guru as Kalaya (right)

With plenty of violence, there are a number of scenes which are blurred out, as well as a lot of swear words that are bleeped out. Kumararaja expressed his dissatisfaction over the censoring, saying that it would make the film “less natural”. Nevertheless, hats off to him for making a film this bold, breaking several taboos of Tamil cinema. The use of slow-motion and other cinematographic techniques is also new. The film went on to win the National Awards for Best Editing and Best Debut. The performances of most actors are top notch. Yasmin Ponnappa’s acting is really good but I feel the voice artist could have done better. At times it seems too childish (not sure if that was the intention, though).  

 

Yasmin Ponnappa as Subbu

Overall, Aaranya Kaandam is a thorough entertainer, albeit not a family movie. If you are looking for an unconventional film, this should definitely be on your list.

My Rating: 4/5

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Director: Wes Anderson

Screenplay: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach (based on the book by Roald Dahl)

Cast: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman

Music: Alexandre Desplat

Time: 86 minutes

Bottom-line: Non-stop fun; Anderson does it again!

While Wes Anderson’s films usually involve comical characters, Fantastic Mr. Fox is his first (and only) actual animated film thus far. The film employs a technique called “stop-motion animation”, and has George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Anderson, Wallace Wolodarsky and Michael Gambon in the voice roles.

Boggis, Bunce, and Bean

One fat, one short, one lean.

Those horrible crooks so different in looks

Are nonetheless equally mean.

Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep) are raiding a squab farm, when they get trapped. Mrs. Fox reveals that she is pregnant and makes Mr. Fox promise that he would find a safer job if they get out, and he (reluctantly) agrees. Two years later, the family – now including a son, Ash (Schwartzman) – are settled in a new life. Mr. Fox buys a house in the base of a tree, which his lawyer warns is not safe for foxes. The tree is near the factories and farms of three farmers: Boggie, Bunce and Bean. Ash’s cousin Kristofferson (E. Anderson) comes to live with them, and the two of them don’t get along at all. Soon, Mr. Fox goes back to his thieving ways, and robs all three farmers. The enraged trio set up a plan to kill the fox. The encounters soon turn into deadly games, with the whole fox family exposed to danger.

 

(From left) Kristofferson, Kylie the opussum, Mr. Fox, Mrs. Fox, and
Ash

The film’s production spanned nearly five years, and the result is amazing. Stop-motion animation is painful and requires enormous patience (the famous British franchise Wallace and Gromit took 15 months to make a 30-minute short-film using this technique), but Anderson used a lot of CGI effects too. The details of the animation – from the action sequences to the tears in their face – are immaculate. The team behind the animation work really deserves praise. Fantastic Mr. Fox also showcases Anderson’s quintessential use of colour, and locations, and even the cinematography techniques. Desplat’s score and the songs included in the background blend in superbly with the content.   

 

The three farmers

The characters in the film are quite interesting. The way various families are brought into the picture – the story is written in such a way that each animal can bring out its characteristic features - an aspect I also loved in Zootopia – the values of being a family, and of course, the overall humorous tone of the film make it exciting for all ages. The dialogues are crisp and funny, and all the vocal artists have done a fine job. Some of the best scenes of the film are the ones where Mr. Fox robs the three farmers, the one where they go to rescue Kristofferson, and the climax (the last scene giving a comic twist before the closing credits).

The film tells us a lot about family: on one side, we have a son who is disappointed that his parents admire his cousin more, and on the other, we have a husband obsessed with thievery, who suddenly feels the overwhelming responsibility of being the family man. There are friends and foes, the hunters and the hunted, everyone… and Dahl’s story beautifully brings them all together. As Mr. Fox puts his family ahead of his selfish obsessions, and as all animals put their differences apart and team up against the hunters, we get a nice heart-warming story.

My Rating: 4.5/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 92%

Taxi Driver (1976)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Story: Paul Schrader

Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster

Music: Bernard Herrmann

Time: 113 minutes

Bottom-line: Highly intense and hard-hitting

On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.

Winner of the 1976 Palme d’Or, here is the film considered to be one of the greatest dramas of all time: Taxi Driver. Martin Scorsese’s second collaboration with De Niro is a film that explores one man’s perspective of the city: his intentions, his loneliness, his willingness to bring about a change, his love life, and eventually, his destruction. Jodie Foster also plays a lead role, with Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle and Cybill Shepherd playing the supporting roles.

You talking to me? Well, I'm the only one here.

Travis Bickle (De Niro) is an honourably discharged US Marine, now working as a taxi driver in New York. He suffers from depression, and is disgusted by the crime, sleaze and prostitution he witnesses on the streets, and keeps talking about bringing about a change (as he enters his feelings into a diary). He falls in love with Betsy (Shepherd), a campaign volunteer for presidential candidate Senator Palantine, but the romance doesn’t work out. Travis later becomes obsessed with a child prostitute, Iris (Foster), who entered his cab once to escape from her pimp, Matthew (Keitel). As he reaches his breaking point, he decides to undergo an intense physical training program, and purchases and uses a range of guns with a plan to assassinate the Senator. At the same time, he also tries to convince Iris to quit prostitution and go back home.

 

De Niro as Travis

All animals come out at night.

One such “animal” is the character of Travis. The film is a case study of his life and his mind; he is sickened by the society he is in, but he has no choice but to deal with it. He hates the prostitution, but he spends time at adult movie theatres at night. Throughout the film, he tries to make contact with those around him: first, it is Betsy, who leaves him after he takes her to a porn movie; then the Senator, then later his bodyguard, and lastly, Iris. When everything fails, he decides to do the “cleaning up” himself. In his own words, “Now I see it clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction. There never has been any choice for me.”

Here is a man who would not take it anymore. Here is someone who stood up.

When Travis does decide to take charge, what he does results in a violent climax. The last few scenes can be thought of as a dream, or reality. Does he achieve what he wanted, or is that only in his head? Both scenarios are equally likely. The background score by Herrmann is his last piece of work before his death (which, sadly, was before the release of the film); critics say that his score reflected the sleaze and filth that Travis witnessed, but for me, the music just got on my nerves. It wasn’t exactly a chilling piece, like that of Psycho, but there was something about it that gave an uneasy feeling. The cinematography, particularly the use of lighting – considering that most of the film takes place at night time – and the subtle slow-motion shots, is also something to look out for. Scorsese also had to desaturate the colour in the shootout scene, for such an amount of on-screen violence led to controversy.

 

Travis, with Betsy (played by Shepherd)

Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere.

Robert De Niro is simply riveting in his role. From the everyday taxi driver to the gun-wielding killer, he is in top form every inch of the way. Bickle’s character is often cited as a villain, but that is again something to ponder over. Are his intentions truly evil, or does the society portray him as a villain? The other star, of course, is Jodie Foster. 14 years old when she acted in the film, she pulls off such a difficult role to play. Foster had to be tested by psychiatrists to ensure that the role would not affect her mind, given the content (and the violence). She later won the BAFTA award for her role.

 

Foster as Iris

So, except for the occasional slow pace of the film, the acting, character development and Scorsese’s direction make this a Hollywood classic that will leave a strong impression on you.

My Rating: 4/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 99%