Lucia

Plot

The film follows two versions of the same man: Nikki in reality and Nikhil in dreams. It opens with the protagonist (Sathish Ninasam) in a coma, kept alive on life support. The narrative alternates between two parallel stories — one in colour and the other in black and white. Detective Sanjay of the Mumbai Crime Branch investigates the incident that led to the protagonist’s condition. While examining his belongings, he discovers cryptic notes and a mysterious pill. At the same time, police interrogate two suspects connected to the case.

In reality, Nikki works as an usher, or “torch-shiner”, at a Bengaluru cinema owned by Shankranna (Achyuth Kumar). Suffering from insomnia and loneliness, Nikki obtains Lucia pills from a drug dealer. The pills allow users to dream of the life they desire, but stopping them turns those dreams into nightmares.

After taking the pills, Nikki dreams of being Nikhil, a successful film actor surrounded by dream-world versions of people from his real life. Nikhil’s story is shown in black and white. Nikki falls in love with Shwetha (Sruthi Hariharan), who appears as a waitress in reality and a model in the dream world.

In reality, Shankranna is threatened by gangsters demanding ownership of his theatre over an old debt. Nikki struggles to win Shwetha’s affection; she initially rejects him because of his low income but later falls for his sincerity. Her efforts to improve his life fail, and Shankranna is eventually killed by the gangsters. Refusing to abandon the theatre, Nikki restores it and releases Shankranna’s long-forgotten film. He later reconciles with Shwetha, who agrees to marry him.

In the dream world, Nikhil’s relationship with Shwetha deteriorates because of her work in the film industry. After rescuing Shankranna from kidnappers, Nikhil dismisses him for his own safety, isolates himself, and begins losing his grip on reality. In a trashed room, he shines a torch on the walls and sees scenes from Nikki’s life projected around him.

As events unfold, Shwetha becomes overwhelmed by fame and finally understands Nikhil’s unhappiness. Nikhil admits he can no longer distinguish dreams from reality, but says he is content regardless. He then jumps from a rooftop, shocking everyone present, including a contract killer waiting to murder him.

Production

In December 2011 Pawan Kumar announced on the Web that his next project, after the success of his directorial debut film Lifeu Ishtene, was going to be Lucia. For the next two months, he met quite a few producers and top actors and found it difficult to fund his film. That led Pawan Kumar to write a post titled Making Enemies on his blog. Three days after it was published, the response was so overwhelming that he decided to pitch the idea of inviting people to produce the film and Pawan Kumar initiated Project Lucia. Aditya Vikram Thoomati was crucial in making the bandwagon work. Fellow writer to Pawan, a newbie to Kannada cinema, Sai Prasad did his writing expertise through it. Lucia is notable for its use of crowdfunding. It was funded by 110 investors who contributed to the project through a Facebook page and a blog run by director-actor Pawan Kumar. It was the first Kannada movie to bypass the traditional film financing model. The director initially offered the lead role to model turned actor Diganth but he was later replaced by Sathish Ninasam, who has played supporting roles in many Kannada films. Lucia was made at a budget of ₹50 lakh (US$52,000). Kannada language television channel Udaya TV bought the satellite rights of the film for ₹0.95 crore (US$99,000). Actor Sathish Ninasam along with the music director Poornachandra Tejaswi visited colleges in Davangere to promote Lucia.

Soundtrack

The music for the film and soundtracks were composed by debutant Poornachandra Tejaswi, and background score composed by Poornachandra Tejaswi. The lyrics were penned by Poornachandra Tejaswi, Yogaraj Bhat and Raghu Shastri. The album has seven tracks.

Release

The trailer of Lucia was released in February 2013, with the film releasing on 6 September 2013. PVR released the film on 6 September 2013 under their "Director’s Rare" category all over India. It was released across Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Delhi with English subtitles. Lucia was also set to be released in Pakistan.

Critical reception

The critics praised the film. Anurag Kashyap tweeted "My birthday gift to myself would be lucia...". Actor Siddharth was "blown away" after watching the movie. He immediately called the director Pawan Kumar and praised him. Lucia was also in the race for India's official entry to the Oscars.

The movie received positive reviews from critics. Well-known critic Baradwaj Rangan remarked, "An entertaining new Kannada film pushes the envelope even as it pays homage to the old way of doing things". Bookmyshow website said it is a landmark film for Indian cinema. Tribune praised the film story. Baradwaj Rangan writing for The Hindu stated that Lucia is a new type of Kannada film calling it "An entertaining new Kannada film pushes the envelope even as it pays homage to the old way of doing things".

Box office

Lucia earned ₹0.95 crore (US$99,000) in satellite rights and ₹3.06 crore (US$320,000) in ticket sales through its entire run in cinemas, far surpassing its production budget of around ₹0.50 crore (US$52,000). Lucia was also released by PVR Pictures in some cinemas outside Karnataka, fetching around ₹8 lakh (US$8,300) from 13 screens in the first three days.

Influences and cultural references

Director Pawan Kumar admitted to have taken influence from Christopher Nolan and David Lynch. The dream and real sequences being shot in monochrome and in color to differentiate between the two stories, like the Memento and Open Your Eyes to alternate between two plot-lines. The movie's relation with dream and reality and the interrelation between the two. There is also a scene where Nolan's movie Following is seen playing on a TV screen. Requiem for a Dream is also seen playing on a TV in the same scene which is also an influence as the movie deals with addiction. Apart from the cinematic influences, the theme of dream and illusion is also shown as an influence of the poem Nee Mayeyolago by Kanaka Dasa which is quoted at the beginning of the movie. The poem is also partially contained in the lyrics of the song Nee Toreda Galigeyali in the soundtrack.

Awards

Karnataka State Film Awards 2013

Best Music Director — Poornachandra Tejaswi

Best Male Playback Singer — Naveen Sajju

61st Filmfare Awards South

Best Director — Pawan Kumar

Best Supporting Actor — Achyuth Kumar

Best Male Playback Singer — Poornachandra Tejaswi – "Thinbedakammi"

London Indian Film Festival 2013

Audience Choice Award

Karnataka International Music Awards

Best Background Score — Poornachandra Tejaswi, Monish Kumar M. K., Santhosh Narayanan

3rd South Indian International Movie Awards

Best Cinematographer — Siddhartha Nuni (Nominated)

Best Director - Pawan Kumar

Home media

The film was released in Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD 5.1, VCD Version From Anand Video Studio. It is the first Kannada film to be released in Blu-ray. The director, an advocate of alternative distribution strategies for indie filmmakers, said, "It’s time to set up your own virtual movie theaters on the World Wide Web which will be open 24×7 across the globe."