Pride Special: Revisiting Vijay Sethupathi's transgender character from 'Super Deluxe'
The 2019 Tamil film Super Deluxe assembles some of the most famous names of South Indian Cinema and employs them in unconventional stories—dark, eccentric, and different from the usual crop. But what's distinctive in this nearly three-hour-long film is the segment featuring Vijay Sethupathi, who plays Manickam, who undergoes a sex reassignment surgery to become Shilpa—giving his wife the shock of her life.
Focus on woman trapped in man's body
Sethupathi's segment revolves around a middle-aged man Manickam in a small town; he has a wife, Jyothi, and a son Rasukutty. The story is already in motion by the time we meet them and Manickam's mother, as well as the neighbors who populate their house to meet Manickam since he is returning home after several years. However, this time, he isn't Manickam but Shilpa.
'Super Deluxe' deals with issue with gentleness
It is never easy to deal with sensitive issues such as sex transition and a family's response to such a shock that can pull the rug from under one's feet, but Super Deluxe traverses through it gently, in a matter-of-fact manner. The camera lingers on shocked faces for just the right amount of time—it captures their sheer disbelief but isn't needlessly sensationalized.
Son is not ashamed of his father
One of the pivotal points of the story is the usage of Rasukutty—a young boy of seven or eight—to drive the plot ahead. He is the youngest in the narrative and the only one whose mind is not besmirched with thoughts of discrimination and disgust. He goes around the town with his father proudly, completely unaffected by the many eyebrows his father raises.
Son is youngest, but also smartest
To elaborate on how Rasukutty ties into the story, it is also remarkable how despite being the youngest, he is the wisest—the only one whose brain hasn't been polluted by societal constructions. When his friends make fun of his father, he defends him, and while Manickam is ridiculed by his family for "coming back as a woman," Rasukutty never wants him to leave.
Solid premise uplifted by even better acting chops
Sethupathi won a National Film Award for this role, and he deserves plaudits for accepting a part not many mainstream actors would have been comfortable with. From the gait of a woman to the peculiar way in which trans people clap, Sethupathi nails the nuances of the character, eventually evoking emotions of pity and concern. He humanizes the character without making it overly melodramatic.
Catch film on Netflix this weekend
The film focuses on the perils faced by the transgender community—right from the ridicule they confront from society to the barbs from their families. It's also a reflection of how people's reactions alter depending on the interlocutor's gender; Shilpa is referred to by "it"—as a trans, she doesn't even deserve the decency of a human pronoun. Watch this segment for Sethupathi and mature filmmaking.
