In this article6 min read
Spoiler warning: this page gives away all four stories and the ending of Super Deluxe (Tamil, 2019, directed by Thiagarajan Kumararaja, with Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, Samantha and Ramya Krishnan). It contains discussion of sexual content, transphobia and sexual coercion because the film does.
The short answer
Four stories that seem unrelated collide at the end through a television set. Teenagers throw a broken TV into an abandoned building, and it falls through the ceiling onto the head of Inspector Berlin, a corrupt policeman, killing him at the very moment he is assaulting Vaembu.
That fulfils a death curse put on him earlier by Shilpa, a transgender woman. Meanwhile Arputham the preacher breaks his statue of Jesus and finds diamonds inside, and a hidden alien child ensures the boys get the money for the TV in the first place.
The film closes on a voice-over about the chaos and interconnection of the universe and a wink to the audience from an adult-film “doctor” who promises to reveal the secret of life.
The four stories
1. Shilpa’s story
Jyothi and her young son Rasukutty are waiting for Manickam, Rasukutty’s father, who left seven years ago. Manickam returns from Mumbai as a transgender woman, Shilpa. Jyothi struggles; Rasukutty accepts Shilpa without question and insists on introducing her to his school friends.
On the way, a corrupt, bigoted inspector, Berlin, detains Shilpa and extorts sexual favours. She faces more humiliation at the school. She buys a ticket back to Mumbai and loses track of Rasukutty. At the police station, she meets Berlin again, rebuffs his demand, fights her way out and puts a death curse on him.
She goes home and finds Rasukutty safe with Jyothi. When Rasukutty finds the Mumbai ticket in her purse, Shilpa realises her son and wife love her as she is and decides to stay.
2. The TV story
Five teenagers (Gaaji, Soori, Mohan, Vasanth and Thuyavan) skip school to watch an adult film at Thuyavan’s house and discover the actress is Soori’s mother, Leela. Soori smashes the TV and runs away. Thuyavan, afraid of his strict father, asks Gaaji and Vasanth to help raise money for a new set by evening.
They take a delivery job from a local gangster and lose the goods. They try to rob a pawnbroker’s house and meet a girl with telekinetic powers who turns out to be an extraterrestrial. She makes a physical clone of Gaaji to keep as a companion and gives the boys the money for the TV.
They buy a new one and throw the broken one through the roof of an abandoned building, then go to the cinema.
3. Leela’s story
Soori runs home with a screwdriver to kill Leela, trips on the stairs and stabs himself. Leela rushes him to hospital and tells her husband Arputham, a devout Christian convert and street preacher who survived the 2004 tsunami by clinging to a statue of Jesus.
He is in a spiritual crisis. He takes Soori out of hospital against medical advice for faith healing and locks Leela out. She gets a social worker to put Soori back in intensive care.
We then learn why Arputham’s faith is shaken. Shilpa had come to him, searching for Rasukutty, and confessed that she had once unknowingly trafficked two runaway children to a gang that mutilated them for begging, and feared her son’s disappearance was punishment.
Arputham told her she deserved death. Shilpa mentioned that she too survived the tsunami by holding on to a rock, and she never thought of the rock as divine. Pushed to the edge, Arputham smashes his statue and finds a stash of smuggled diamonds hidden inside it.
They pay for Soori’s life-saving operation. Leela asks him whether he would worship a teddy bear if that had saved him in the sea. He has no answer.
4. Vaembu and Mugil’s story
Vaembu, unhappy in an arranged marriage, invites her ex-boyfriend home while her husband Mugil, an aspiring actor, is out. The ex dies of a heart attack. Mugil returns, finds the body, and afraid of social ruin agrees to help get rid of it. They put it in a canvas bag and try to stage a road accident by leaving the body in a car on a railway track.
Inspector Berlin catches them, deduces the crime and blackmails them. He forces them back home and demands sex from Vaembu in exchange for silence. As she is being assaulted, the broken TV thrown away by the teenagers crashes through the ceiling and kills Berlin. Vaembu and Mugil dispose of both bodies, and their shared trauma mends their marriage.
How the stories connect
- Berlin links Shilpa and Vaembu: he abuses both, and Shilpa’s curse is what kills him.
- The TV links the boys to Vaembu: the set they discard falls on Berlin’s head.
- Shilpa and Arputham: her words about the rock, and his harshness, drive his crisis and, indirectly, the statue breaking.
- Soori and Leela: the boy’s rage at what he saw is why he is injured and why Arputham’s faith is tested.
- The alien: by giving the boys money for a new TV, she is the reason the old one is discarded where it falls on Berlin.
The film’s argument is that none of this is planned. It is a chain of accidents, and the connection only shows from outside.
The ending, explained
A philosophical voice-over ties up the four stories with thoughts about interconnectedness, cosmic irony and the chaos of the universe. In the cinema, the teenagers watch the opening of an adult film called Vaazhvin Ragasiyam (“The Secret of Life”). A man dressed as a doctor breaks the fourth wall, winks at the camera, and promises to reveal the ultimate mysteries of existence. The joke is that the “secret of life” is being sold as cheap entertainment. The film has just spent three hours showing you the real mystery, which is that nobody is in control.
What does it all mean?
- Faith and chance. Arputham clung to a statue and called it God. Shilpa clung to a rock and called it a rock. Leela’s teddy bear question asks whether faith is about the object or the survivor.
- Acceptance. Shilpa’s story ends with a family choosing to love her as she is. The film’s moral centre is a child who does not need an explanation.
- Hypocrisy. Berlin, the man who exploits everyone, is killed by an accident, not by justice. The film refuses to say that the universe is fair; it says only that it is surprising.
- The title. The film was announced under the working title Aneedhi Kadhaigal (“Amoral Tales”) before it was renamed.
Questions people keep asking
Is the alien real?
Within the film, yes. She uses telekinesis, clones Gaaji and gives the boys the money, and the film treats it as part of its weird realism.
Does Shilpa’s curse really kill Berlin?
The film makes the timing so precise that the audience reads it as a curse fulfilled. Whether that is magic or coincidence is the film’s central joke.
What genre is it?
The director has said it does not belong to a single genre; it mixes black comedy, drama and science fiction.
See the Super Deluxe film page for ratings and reviews.
Updates
- 5 Nov 2026 Rewritten in full: scene by scene, every character's fate, clues, fan questions and what is still unknown.
We update this page as more is confirmed.