Lucia, one of the recent Kannada movie which has raised a lot of expectations among Kannada movie audience due to it being the first crowd funded Kannada movie, its ingenious ways of using social media for marketing, being the first Kannada movie to be premiered in London and winning the audience choice award at LIFF and the title itself. Like me many were wondering why Lucia and what does it mean, watch it to know the answer.
Lucia is 'Aronofsky'esque, 'Nolan'esque and 'Upendra'esque movie. Lucia is mostly inspired by Darren Aronofsky's drug movie "Requiem for a Dream" (RfaD) and as a tribute to it Pawan Kumar has included a small clip of RfaD in Lucia (Scene where Nikki played by Satish Ninasam enters the Ayurvedic medicine tent for the first time to get Lucia and among the many LCD TVs hung on the wall a small clip of RfaD will be playing). Lucia is also a tribute to Christopher Nolan and as in Nolan's "Memento", Pawan has filmed the real life and dream sequences in Black & white and in color so that the audience can distinguish between them, and finally 'Upendra'esque because it reminded me of Uppi's classic "A" and Lucia has a spoof of Uppi's another cult classic "OM" as "ROME" :D
Lucia starts off with Kanakadasa's "Nee dehadolago" which feels custom made for the movie and then begins 130mins (approx) of engaging cinema about real life & dreams of an Usher and a Sandalwood Superstar with an awesome climax. I'll not write much about the plot as it'll kill the interest of those who are yet to watch the movie.
In its due course Lucia raises a lot of issues like insomnia, lucid dreaming, euthanasia, plight of single screens after influx of mall and multiplex culture, real estate mafia, underworld threat to film stars, shallow world of glamor, narcissistic behavior of people in today's world where most of them are behind name, fame, glamor & money, and Indians craze for English language.
Lucia has few similarities between Pawan's directorial debut "Lifeu Ishtene" like his frequent collaborators Satish Ninasam, Achuth Kumar, and Yograj Bhat, in both the movies Satish ends up in hospital bed, four guys in song "Helu shiva" are similar to the ones in "Junior Devdasa", both movies name starts with 'L' :)
Satish Ninasam has come a long way from the first time I saw him in Yograj Bhat's "Manasare", he has acted really well as an Usher and managed upto his capabilities as the Sandalwood Superstar, Achuth Kumar has once again shown why he is a great talent, Shruthi Hariharan has done considerably well as a pizza girl and a starlet, supporting cast has done a appreciable job. My friend Satish Kumar (below pic) with whom I watched the movie has a blink 'n' miss role as a press reporter (Rome movie's press meet scene). Kudos Satish way to go :)
Pawan Kumar is one of the emerging directorial talents of Kannada movies, hope he churns out many more good movies in future which the Kannada movie audience are proud of and the whole world notices.
Pawan has used non-linear storytelling, split screen images and B&W scenes really well in the movie, screenplay is really tight and story is very gripping and simply superb. Humor is very subtle and clean, dialogues are realistic. Music by Poornachandra is apt for the movie and songs are hummable. Cinematography by Sid Nuni is awesome, editing is sharp.
Lucia is a fine example of what good planning can achieve, it is made with a shoe string budget of Rs 50 lakhs. As seen from few of the videos posted by Pawan, entire movie is shot using Canon 5D with some ingenious tools. Without any pressure from movie producer or financier as it is crowd funded Pawan is able to go for a new music director Poornachandra, use lesser known actors, and shoot at his own pace (movie has been in news at least from past 2 years). He has used social media very effectively for marketing and able to reach a section of not-so-frequent Kannada movie goers. Crowd funding and online distribution is very new and exciting and Pawan has used it very well for a niche market like Kannada movies.
Hats off to Pawan Kumar for such an effort and giving us a good Kannada movie to remember for a long time to come.
Lucia is 'Aronofsky'esque, 'Nolan'esque and 'Upendra'esque movie. Lucia is mostly inspired by Darren Aronofsky's drug movie "Requiem for a Dream" (RfaD) and as a tribute to it Pawan Kumar has included a small clip of RfaD in Lucia (Scene where Nikki played by Satish Ninasam enters the Ayurvedic medicine tent for the first time to get Lucia and among the many LCD TVs hung on the wall a small clip of RfaD will be playing). Lucia is also a tribute to Christopher Nolan and as in Nolan's "Memento", Pawan has filmed the real life and dream sequences in Black & white and in color so that the audience can distinguish between them, and finally 'Upendra'esque because it reminded me of Uppi's classic "A" and Lucia has a spoof of Uppi's another cult classic "OM" as "ROME" :D
Lucia starts off with Kanakadasa's "Nee dehadolago" which feels custom made for the movie and then begins 130mins (approx) of engaging cinema about real life & dreams of an Usher and a Sandalwood Superstar with an awesome climax. I'll not write much about the plot as it'll kill the interest of those who are yet to watch the movie.
In its due course Lucia raises a lot of issues like insomnia, lucid dreaming, euthanasia, plight of single screens after influx of mall and multiplex culture, real estate mafia, underworld threat to film stars, shallow world of glamor, narcissistic behavior of people in today's world where most of them are behind name, fame, glamor & money, and Indians craze for English language.
Lucia has few similarities between Pawan's directorial debut "Lifeu Ishtene" like his frequent collaborators Satish Ninasam, Achuth Kumar, and Yograj Bhat, in both the movies Satish ends up in hospital bed, four guys in song "Helu shiva" are similar to the ones in "Junior Devdasa", both movies name starts with 'L' :)
Satish Ninasam has come a long way from the first time I saw him in Yograj Bhat's "Manasare", he has acted really well as an Usher and managed upto his capabilities as the Sandalwood Superstar, Achuth Kumar has once again shown why he is a great talent, Shruthi Hariharan has done considerably well as a pizza girl and a starlet, supporting cast has done a appreciable job. My friend Satish Kumar (below pic) with whom I watched the movie has a blink 'n' miss role as a press reporter (Rome movie's press meet scene). Kudos Satish way to go :)
Pawan Kumar is one of the emerging directorial talents of Kannada movies, hope he churns out many more good movies in future which the Kannada movie audience are proud of and the whole world notices.
Pawan has used non-linear storytelling, split screen images and B&W scenes really well in the movie, screenplay is really tight and story is very gripping and simply superb. Humor is very subtle and clean, dialogues are realistic. Music by Poornachandra is apt for the movie and songs are hummable. Cinematography by Sid Nuni is awesome, editing is sharp.
Lucia is a fine example of what good planning can achieve, it is made with a shoe string budget of Rs 50 lakhs. As seen from few of the videos posted by Pawan, entire movie is shot using Canon 5D with some ingenious tools. Without any pressure from movie producer or financier as it is crowd funded Pawan is able to go for a new music director Poornachandra, use lesser known actors, and shoot at his own pace (movie has been in news at least from past 2 years). He has used social media very effectively for marketing and able to reach a section of not-so-frequent Kannada movie goers. Crowd funding and online distribution is very new and exciting and Pawan has used it very well for a niche market like Kannada movies.
Hats off to Pawan Kumar for such an effort and giving us a good Kannada movie to remember for a long time to come.