Thiagarajan Kumararaja who made a neo noir ‘gangster padam’ named Aaranya Kaandam starring Jackie Shroff, Yasmin Ponappa and Ravi Krishna, also directed a quirky anthology named Super Deluxe starring Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Vijay Sethupathi, Ramya Krishnan and Fahadh Faasil after a gap of nearly a decade. Super Deluxe, which is often raved by fans for its complex storytelling, one-of-a-kind characters, posing ideas that break stereotypes, also has insanely minute references of his previous movie Aaranya Kaandam, in it.
Aaranya Kaandam starts off with an excerpt from the book ‘From Volga to Ganga’ where Nagadutta asks Chanakya “Edhu dharmam?” (What is dharma?) to which Chanakya replies “Edhu thevaiyo athuve Dharmam” (Dharma is doing what needs to be done). This is an excellent prelude that sets the mood to the movie where all the characters are morally gray, who manipulate their way into getting what they want which is often a necessity – be it Subbu (Yasmin) manipulating Sappai (Ravi Krishna) into stealing money from Singaperumal (Jackie Shroff) and eventually killing him to free herself from him or Kodukkapuli manipulating his dad into stealing drugs in the name of god to get rid of his impoverished life.
Consider this prelude as something that extends to Super Deluxe as well, where the characters get into far more scandalous things to merely survive in a hypocritic, bleak world – Leela (Ramya Krishnan), a mother of a teen acts in a porn film, Vembu (Samantha) and Mugil (Fahadh), a married couple hide a corpse with whom the wife just cheated on and a bunch of school boys turn into contract killers and thieves to escape getting scolded by their parents. In the end, however, you don’t really call any of them criminals because you ask yourself the question, ‘wouldn’t I do the same in a situation like this?’ which is where Chanakya’s wisdom helps.
It took 9 years for Thiyagraja Kumararaja to make Super Deluxe after Aaranya Kaandam and that’s probably the time difference between the events of the film as well – because in Super Deluxe, while Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathi) looks for their lost son, you can see a half-torn obituary poster of Singaperumal on a board and another obituary poster for Gajendran (Rambo Rajkumar). Another indication of the two films being in the same universe is when important events take place in the same location – the mani koondu where deals are fixed and the empty warehouse where bad men meet their end.
In Super Deluxe, when Berlin (Bucks) restrains Mugil and Vembu at the warehouse, he gets a call from a certain police officer from the station named Mayilvaaganam. Do you recall the name? YES! It’s the same Mayilvaaganam from Aaranya Kaandam who is the neutral and common messenger between Singaperumal, Gajendran and Pasupathy (Sampath).
If this blows your mind, hold on until you find out that TK foreshadowed his alien-human romantic trope of Super Deluxe in Aaranya Kaandam itself where Sappai’s video game versions of Gaaji and Seth-u girl, go back to their homeland on a cute little UFO!!
Largely, both Super Deluxe and Aaranya Kaandam follow similar themes – that of a father-son relationship is quite peculiar but wholesome. Kodukapuli telling the henchmen “apdi ila aana avaru en appa la” (not really but he’s my father) when they ask him if he loves him so dearly, hits you in the same place as Rasukutty saying “nee aambalaiya vena iru, pombalaiya vena iru; aana enga kooda irunthu tholaiyen” (be a man or be a woman, just be with us) to his dad who has abandoned him since he was shunned by the society for being a transwoman.
They both follow the theme of survival – on one hand you have Pasupathy running from Singaperumal and Gajendran, Subbu protecting herself from Singaperumal, and Kodukkapuli saving his father Kalaiyan (Guru Somasundaram) from Singaperumal’s men; while on the other hand you have Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathy) running away from Berlin’s perversion and Soori (Naveen) struggling to live after he stabs himself accidently.
Both Super Deluxe and Aaranya Kaandam have overlapping motifs like that of atypical, badass women who are prime examples of femme fatale characterisation, who’re sexually, spiritually, culturally and emotionally evolved. They break stereotypes of chastity, shame and patriarchy while the men on the other hand have fragile egos that are easily triggered – Singaperumal plots the death of Pasupathy over a casual remark on his manliness and Mugil feels insecure over a dead corpse because that’s his wife’s ex boyfriend.
Mugil is also shown as a socially frustrated individual who holds futile opinions on society, its functioning and systems which is quite similar to Kalaiyan and his random philosophical blabbering.
But the most interesting theory out of all that surrounds these two films is that their universe extends to that of Oram Po as well. While the film is directed by Pushkar-Gayathri, it is written by TK. Sappai saves Subbu from getting run over by two racing autos – the exact same autos adorned with the same artwork from Oram Po.
A lot of tiny similarities like pop culture references to Rajini, Vijaykanth and Kamal; playing steamy ‘item’ numbers from the 80s like Vaa Vaa Pakkam Vaa or Vanithamani in the background, quirky ringtones, using melodious composition for action and chase sequences exist in both films but they would rather be considered as elements in a ‘Thiagarajan Kumaraja starter pack’ than easter eggs to the universe – which is where TK stands out. You discover something new, a piece of paper in the top left corner at a 1:42:35 time stamp that makes you pause your movie and ponder over where have you seen it before because it looks familiar, a little mention of a police officer whose face you’re not even shown, random shots of airplanes that remind you of the ‘magic’ that Sappai demonstrates to Subbu and you’re almost always blown by how nuanced and subtle these details are and how many other films it reminds you of!
