LUCIA .. my Hats-off to this movie .. !!!!

I still remember the excitement i felt while watching Inception for the first time. That sense of confusion, that sense of mental breathlessness, that hustle to catch up with the story, that feeling of solving a puzzle piece-by-piece, that mind melting sensation in your head after the movie ends, that sense of achievement after figuring out the entire story-arc, followed by the sense of admiration for that Director's genius. Inception gave me that. It later became my inspiration for taking up short film making. And three years later, a Kannada movie took me back to those same exact memories and feelings. Now, this is something that i have never imagined, not even in my "dreams". Because i was like, " Dude..!!!  .. kannada movie .. ??? seriously .. ??? .. Get a life man ". Honestly, i don't know "Sandalwood" beyond Upendra. I cant even speak or understand a single word in Kannada. I am not even from karnataka. But this Kannada Movie, it changed my perception. It changed my thoughts. It affected my opinion. It mocked my under-estimation and it increased my respect towards the true talent of sandalwood. This  is the only Kannada movie i have watched in my life. But it gave life to lot a of my lazy cerebral brain cells, which have been craving for smart Indian movies since years. These are the few humble words i could muster up to describe this fantastic movie, which deserves more. The name of this movie is called LUCIA.

Now how Good a movie is LUCIA ?

Just Imagine Christopher Nolan Making Inception as a Kannada movie in a Bangalore setting. Imagine it being made on a tight budget, crowd - funded by the Facebook crowd, with limited resources and technology, unknown cast and a few dozens of technicians as Crew. How would it be ?

With the elements of 'dream vs reality' conflict, the non-linear story telling, a sense of mystery, twists and turns in the story, lot of parallel action editing ala Nolan style, it will certainly not only be a movie, but a deliciously complicated and engaging puzzle which challenges you to watch and understand it in a single viewing. Now add a raw Kannadiga touch of simplicity, a subtle humor, a multi-layered love story, a social commentary, a mockery on south Indian masala films and a pinch of loyalty sentiment. Now  grind them all in a grinder box and what you get to see in the end is a true master piece recipe called LUCIA.

What is the movie about ?

Its about our hero who is an insomniac - low class - torch bearer working in a single screen ' pakka mass' theater. To find some sleep, he takes a dream inducing pill believing that its a sleeping tablet. If addicted, this magic pill enables him to dream about all his fantasies of becoming a movie star and living a 'filmy' life style. Hence he leads a duel life, as a torch bearer in real life and as superstar in his dreams. If he stops using that pill, his dreams turn into night mares. Now that's only 10% of the movie for you.

I would not spoil the things for the viewers any further, but i can certainly tell it has the themes of multi-layered narrative, virtual reality, dreams, insomnia, effective parallel action cuts and all the other interesting Christopher Nolan stuff with a backdrop of a love story, catchy songs, genuine sentiment and many more . You can compare the genius of the director Pavan Kumar with Christopher Nolan here but not his movie LUCIA with Inception. Both are different and miles apart. Inception is an action-heist-sci-fi, where as Lucia is more of a Mystery - Psychological thriller which does more than thrilling your senses. It enthralls you on all levels. This is Independent film-making at its very best. Why else would Anurag Kashyap tweet, " My birthday gift to myself would be Lucia ..  " ? That is how i came to know about this movie in the first place.

Why i love this Movie so much ? what is so special about it ?

So many things are special about this movie and i have no clue where to start. Let me try :

1) The movie starts with a beautiful poem of Kanakadasa and a Chinese Quote on Illusion & disillusion. Watch how cleverly the director questions the audience through this poem indirectly. For me this is the first clue of the entire puzzle of Lucia. Are watching what you think you are watching ? Are you perceiving the story in a way you think you are perceiving ?  What if the story you think you are watching and perceiving is something else entirely ? Director Pawan Kumar beautifully soaks his entire movie based on this metaphor so well, that by the end of the movie the audience will bite their fists in admiration for not being able to anticipate how the movie ends. The Director lays out all the clues to see how smart you are, he makes you think you are figuring out his puzzle, but he is always two steps ahead of your game. At the end of the day he'll fool you but there is no shame in getting fooled by a good movie.

2) The best part of the movie is : ITS NOT A SERIOUS MOVIE AT ALL despite its heavy themes. Unlike a typical physiological thriller, you will not find it dark and dead and serious and boring. There are no psychotic villains or mad-arse doctors. This movie has characters which are lively and look like real kannada people walking in Bangalore streets. The dialogues don't have a faked seriousness in them, its just natural Kannada. The acting is just on the right notes. The cinematography is raw, natural, bright and the scenes are aptly lit. The drama in the screenplay never feels inserted. It doesn't take itself too seriously, its funny in parts and yet manages to keep you on your toes. Its a thriller that throws all the rules and conventions of a normal thriller movie in a garbage can. The director never succumbs to these rules and successfully tells the story in his own style.

3) Simply terrific editing. This must have been one hell of a challenge to edit, but the editor pulls off a perfect job, thanks to the clarity of the director. The way this movie is cut, it reminds you of Christopher Nolan. How ? Off course the frequent cross cuts even for a small scene and the parallel action cutting. A special mention to the parallel action cuts, especially the way they switch from dream mode to real mode, the right timing of that switching gives it a sense of fluidity in every scene and even in the songs set in both dream and reality modes, the editor acts like a virtual choreographer. It truly shows the amount of care taken by the director for every minute detail. Sometimes the editing evokes the humor in the way it cuts to the unintended hilarious face expressions of the chocolate skinned actors, sometimes it evokes the romance , sometimes the head spinning feeling and sometimes it is cut according to the music. In that way the editing is a mixed bag of switching genres. The movie switches to dream, reality, flash-back, Flash-forth and present on-going investigation scenes but  never loses its grip and gets clumsy, even for a moment, thanks to some tight editing.

4) A special mention to its songs. What is the role of songs in a typical Indian masala movie ? Even i never understood that till now. But i clearly understood the intentions of the director here : to mock the south Indian cinema culture. The  director cleverly uses the songs and the soundtrack for this purpose. The lyrics of the songs and their music are soaked with satire on these stereotypes. For example, The opening song and the Jamma Jamma song indirectly mocks our culture of a compulsory Introduction song, a romantic song and an Item song for our heroes, it mocks the way they are written, shot and edited. The Thinbedakammi (+the hilarious A for apple) song taps our xenophobic arrogance towards foreigners and our desperation to teach our culture to a foreigner. Every single song serves its purpose and nothing feels redundantly added. All those songs are catchy,  you would enjoy them even if you dint knew Kannada. They had that 'Kolavari Di' feel to them. Even these songs also have the parallel action cuts which is something Christopher Nolan never tried. Terrific use of the songs in this movie and i never skipped a single song, which i usually do while watching general Indian movies.

Excellent Sound-mixing too. Sometimes when the music goes quiet, the director makes the scene work using the sounds available around his environment. A perfect example of this is *spoilers, don't read if you haven't seen this movie yet*, the scene of Shankaranna's death in the theater's projector room, where nikki finds his body coiled up in film roles, the music used in that scene is actually the sound coming out of the movie playing in the theater. That Apt use of the sound there elates that scene. The image of Shankaranna lying dead coiled by the film reels beautifully suggests how his entire life was consumed by movies itself. Simply terrific use of symbolism.

5) The casting was right on the money. No glitz, No glamour, Every single actor and actress has that next-to-our-door look. Very naturally they slip into their characters and bring the story to life.

6) Let's see how many themes the director manages to stuff in this movie through small glimpses :

• The issue of Euthanasia on Moral basis.
• People's obsession with looks and Six Packs with quick results & how Pharmaceutical companies exploit them through false advertisement and branding for mere profits. 
• Our obsession with movies, movie stars, their life, their special treatment on sets whereas the extras get treated like peanuts and how their privacy goes to a toss due to the over-enthusiastic scrutiny by the media.
• An insight in the lives of 'Filmy' people and their inner disgust with the life of fame and glamour.
• An indirect commentary on the 5-songs-4-fights culture of south Indian Movies in a funny way
• The future of Single theater screens vs Multiplexes
• Penetration of other language movies and people in Kannada film industry.
• About the central role for Film reel projectors in this movie, the director once mentioned about it in an interview as a tribute to the celluloid and 100 years of Indian cinema which was bought to life by those reels.
• A very sweet and a multi-Layered love story which kicks all the 'formula-based' love story movies right in their face. Very real, very believable, very relatable and very natural. This is where excellent writing comes into picture. The writer covers all possible hurdles in a relationship from love, trust, betrayal, honesty, jealousy and possessiveness and yet never lets the movie turn into another melancholic love story. 
• A beautiful contrast upon the social division of characters based their incomes,, their homes, their life-styles, their tastes, that funny English-vinglish struggle of the deprived class people.
• A funny tap on our whole process of arranged marriages, especially on rural level.
• All these themes embedded in right proportion within a terrific story line, make this movie a beautiful dream you can go through for the entire 2 hours 15 minutes.

Again, the last time i saw a director who induced multiple themes and issues into his movies was Christopher Nolan, And now i have seen Pawan Kumar.

7) Can you believe all this stuff was done just in a 75 lakhs budget, out which 51 lakhs have been accumulated through Facebook crowd-source funding. What Ram Gopal verma demonstrated by making Dongala Mutha, Pawan Kumar has implemented in Lucia. What Ramu misused in department, Pawan Kumar has used it to great effect, the Go Pro cameras. What big budget movies hardly achieve through crores, the Lucia team has done with mere DSLR cameras. Lucia ha paved a new dimension to Independent cinema by following a unique path from its production to marketing. 

8) The most vital department of any movie, writing. Full marks to Pavan Kumar again for his terrific screenplay. He beautifully balances the entire movie swinging between flash-backs, dream states and different moods ranging from romantic to comedy to seriousness. He precisely allots apt amount of dialogue and screen time to each and every character leaving no hint of redundancy. Not even a single character is left to waste and you'll realize this in a second viewing. The comedy in this movie doesn't lie in those dialogues and slaps, but in the way these characters behave and the way their behavior is captured and cut. It never feels added as a parallel comedy track just for the sake of comedy and there is no mega comedian hired here to make you laugh. It's there because that's the way these characters are and it feels so natural. In the drama portions, you wont find a single trace of  needless Sensationalism, even in the crucial most scenes.

9) The last 15 minutes of the movie are simply true masterpiece. Why ?  Watch and know it yourself. You will then bow down and touch the feet of the director for the way he handles the most crucial part of the movie. Without over-sensationalizing the climax just because its a climax, he'll silently blow your brains out and make you watch the entire movie for the second time so that you can completely come in terms with your understanding of this story. Your saluting to the director is what that follows next.

10) Last but not the least, patiently sticking to his story and constantly backing his belief on his ability, though director Pawan Kumar has went through many rejections from big producers, since last two years he has put his 200% effort behind project Lucia. His hand is visible in every department and his dream is worth coming true. I have never seen any director, even independent, who works round the clock for promoting his movie even long after the release. Till today, i get updates of Lucia on YouTube and Facebook. A true hats-off to his immense passion and persistence behind this project. 

What can i add more ? Other than to recommend as many people as possible to watch this movie and breathe some hope to the aspirations of independent filmmakers like Pawan Kumar. Actors Irfan Khan and Vivek Oberoi have voluntarily promoted the movie. May many more come forward to promote Lucia. May many more accolades come to Lucia. May many more good kannada films churn out in future inspired by Lucia. May the money minded producers invest much more in smarter movies inspired by Lucia. May many other talented kannada directors get more freedom to give wings to their ideas, inspired by Lucia. May the urban Kannada audience start taking Kannada movies more seriously after watching Lucia. May every Kannadiga feel proud that Lucia is a Kannada Movie. May god give strength to Pawan Kumar to make movies more awesome than Lucia in future. This is not just a movie, this an achievement of a passionate film-maker who made something magical defying all the odds against him and hence worthy of every praise. That's the reason why i spent two days for writing this article alone. That's how much i loved this movie. That's how much it Inspired me. Thank you Lucia and team for quenching my thirst for a smart Indian movie. I have watched it three times already and every single time i watched, i discovered a new clue that i had missed before ..!!! .. To Pavan kumar and the Makers of Lucia, I simply tip my hat and say ... BRAVO ..!!!