Disclaimer: I write this review with my honest, personal expression of my individual opinion and overall impressions.
First of all, I do know that this is a pretty late review. My apologies. But, I felt, a movie as brilliant as this had to be done justice by giving it a deserving review.
There are a few handfuls of movies out there that don’t just perform to their full potential, but also create a long lasting impact, a stamp in history if you will, as being a revolution or more aptly, a refreshing change in mainstream Kannada cinema.
Lucia almost borders on being an art film, the concept of intriguing the viewer in a philosophical direction, and opening up avenues for new questions in the reader’s mind, this, however, manages to appeal the masses too, very well indeed. It is India’s first ever audience funded film, and has been lauded by many, critics and casual movie-goers alike. This groundbreaking masterpiece set in Karnataka’s own darling city, Bengaluru, is a visual and conceptual delight to watch. Let’s begin.
The starting credits proceed with a lyrical verse that asks mind-bending questions to the viewer, to give a taste of the overall concept. For example, "Does the soul live inside of you, or do you live inside the soul? " Directed by noted upcoming talent Pawan Kumar, who is in my opinion, a genius in his work.
The story centers around Nikki(Short form for Nikhil, played by Sathish Neenasam), a typical torch-wielding usher at a local old style theater, owned by Shankranna(played by Achyut Kumar), a fatherly person to Nikki, and how he goes about his day to day life of utter simplicity.
Since Nikki is a long suffering insomniac, he is, by strange consequences, introduced to a pill named "Lucia", by a rather shady miracle medicine dealer, as a cure to his serious problem, the true intention of this pill being a drug that would enable "lucid dreaming"(Where the dreamer is fully’awake’ in the dream and can manipulate it according to his wish), wherein he would dwell in an alternate reality, each night, the dream starting where he stopped from the previous night, as a series of continued, interconnected dreams. Nikki, being the naive person he is, doesn’t seem to be bothered by its strange effects, as long as it would give him a good night’s sleep.
The story follows Nikki dreaming up a life of a mega superstar, with every want and luxury within a finger’s reach, literally the life of dreams. As the story progresses, the dream-scape versus reality boundaries start to thin out, almost converging even, and the viewer is thrown into a captivating, intriguing and almost delirious trip, with great attention to detail, superb cinematography, apt background scores and endearing music. The story also follows Nikki’s romantic development with Shwetha(played by Shruthi Hariharan) and the dramatic twists his life takes after "Lucia".
After watching the movie, there are lingering afterthoughts, and it really provokes one to think about their perceptions and that how things usually never appear to be what they really are. The cast was well chosen, with each actor playing a part in this movie doing a great job. There was never a sense of a shortfall in the overall performance of the cast, with the scenes being tightly knit together, very subtle clues, and a good pace. The story is well written and guarantees a majority of the audience glued to their seats till the very terminus of the movie. Being a philosophical guy myself, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
To conclude, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who still hasn’t viewed this class act. You will definitely be impressed. An incredible feat accomplished with a production budget of just around 60 lakh rupees, the film successfully maintains an air of immaculate quality and adept camera work. It is also a film with such complexity, that it deserves a second watch, in order to fully appreciate the gist of it all. The use of English subtitles also helps people with difficulties understanding Kannada to appreciate it better, which I thought was a nice touch.
Overall, a really nice, well executed film to watch.