Director Nikhil Advani’s latest outing is a nifty thriller in parts, a tepid template in others. He smartly keeps the acting bandwidth requirement for his lead within manageable spectrum, making John Abraham’s intense and stoic act a highlight. But it’s the trauma that real-life cops, soldiers, and women and men whose daily routine involves staring down a barrel, must face, that truly stuns you.

Taking seemingly stray incidents across different people’s lives, director Thiagarajan Kumararajan creates an intimate microcosm of the universe, nay, of our galaxy. With a terrific ensemble cast, ‘Super Deluxe’ is a heartfelt and intimate rumination on life, politics, relationships, sex, lust, and life, in a never-ending circle that connects all of its characters and their struggles in the most unexpected ways.

Director Aashiq Abu contact traces his way into your senses with the slow-rising tension of a virus creating a domino of devastation. And yet, amidst the thrills and (the literal) chills that he creates, ‘Virus’ also installs a picture of hope and courage that’s painted by everyday women and men.