Lucia

One of the best movies I have watched . It is a artistic film with thriller instincts. It will keep you hooked from first frame. At the end of the movie you will come out respecting & acknowledge the good state of your life compared with so many others. It just asks you to have a satisfaction with what you have & pursue your dreams. Great direction, editing, music, acting. It is a universal appealing movie all over till the end.Main Character played by Satish , he has provided full justice to the role & a superb star cast hand picked by Director Pawan Kumar. You need more reason to watch this movie? It is the first crowd funded movie in Indian cinema history & what an awesome movie crowd have produced.Truly a must watch & it has set a new standard for Indian cinema.

Lucia - Excellent, Marvelous, Mind blowing, etc etc... A complete entertainment package made out of a tiny budget, raised by crowd funding which is first of a kind in Kannada film history. The movie is beyond the expectation of all the investors and garnering appreciation from every one who watched it. Excellent story line and narration by director Mr. Pawan Kumar, excellent performances by cast, great music, all in all a perfect package. The intelligent narration keeps audience involved with turns n twists through out. The movie haunts you like a dream even after you come out of the theater. Thanks to the cast and crew, especially Mr. Pawan Kumar for making "Lucia" a reality.

Well let me make it clear. I am a fan of any sensible cinema be it a mainstream one like Bacchan or an art-house/parallel cinema like Lucia.

I went into the theatre having almost no background information or hype and this movie pleasantly surprised me being a rarity in Kannada. Made like an edge of the seat thriller with a great twist at the end,this blink and you miss movie demands your complete attention right from the word go.Definitely not for the popcorn masala loving club sitting in the front row, one of whom who nearly got killed in the interval for recommending this to his friends!

In case you do want to know about the story, its about a common man who takes a pill called Lucia sold to him as a dream pill and his journey through it.

The director needs to be commended to have taken this challenge and its worth a watch just for his efforts to bring a difficult script come alive almost near perfection.The technical aspects are A class, comparable to any Hollywood creation, the non linear editing, the colors, the camera-work, cinematography and music (which surprisingly strikes a cord with the audience)

Not to forget the earnest performances by the entire star cast especially Satish Neenasam who is completely believable as Nikki.

The only pitfalls in the movie come (after the exhilarating 1st half)in the early to mid part of 2nd half when the script gets repetitive and tends to drag the movie and the climax where its not clear what makes the hero come to terms with reality.

That apart, this movie is ground breaking in many ways and its heartening to watch such stuff on the big screen which was probably unimaginable a few yrs ago. Do not miss it!

My review on LUCIA (Kannada film) :

The 1st word that comes to my mind when I think about LUCIA is "DREAM", cos for many reasons : 1. Firstly, its a dream project of Director Pawan Kumar and the entire team of LUCIA. 2. It was also the audiences' dreams to have funded in the film, first of its kind, a crowd funded film- which is a dream come true. 3. We all dream in our lives as we are normal human beings, after I watched this film I have 3 things to say : " I saw the dream, I loved the dream and I'm still living in that dream" Presenting to you 1 of the best movies ever made in Kannada and Indian cinema, a special thanks to Pawan Kumar and his entire team for trusting, investing and instilling this dream into our lives.

Please note : I've watched this film twice yesterday once at PVR and once at Veeresh, to also understand the public reactions. Also request to all the people who don't know Kannada to watch this film as there are sub-titles.

Firstly, Director Pawan Kumar : This man is an extraordinary n unbelievable magician, he has proved with Lucia that he can give tough competition to Upendra who is known for his different, unique brain- teasing concepts and editing. Lucia teases your brain, n please carry your brain to this film as its a no-nonsense movie with full on entertainment. What I liked about Lucia is its a simple thought very cleverly/brilliantly told with the necessary entertaining/commercial aspects be it songs, humor, making, emotions. It is very difficult to package all the things n yet come up with a unique n brilliant product. We normally have seen many directors in the past who have tried to say so many things/characters in 1 plot but have failed miserably. But Pawan excels n succeeds with this, 1 of the most brilliant narratives and editing ever. My prediction " Lucia will sweep most of the awards for the year 2013".

Hero Satish Neenasam : Satish "Neenu Awesome". Truly this guy deserves a huge round of applause. Excellent screen presence, confidence, expressions, dialog delivery. Normally he is known for his comical roles, but he has excelled with Lucia. In few sequences he underplays himself so much by giving the right kinda expression, 1 scene where I loved his acting is at the Pizza joint where he meets the heroine n gets disappointed n then leaves with the money on table, I swear I was in tears. That scene touched my heart and also the theater renovation process.

Heroine Sruthi Hariharan: Pretty, Bold, Beautiful…yet soulful, this girl also surprises with her varied looks n expressions. She is a perfect mix of class n mass. I loved the sequences which portray "emotional vs practical" between hero n heroine. Very practical, yet emotional. This girl has a bright future. In few angles she looks similar to Sindhu Loknath.

Achyuta Kumar : One of the finest actors, for me if any1 who has replaced the veteran Ananth Nag its got to be this great man "Achyuta Kumar". He has put in his life to the character 'Shankaranna'. The best on-screen chemistry in this film is not the hero-heroine's , but its Achyuta Kumar-Satish's. Extraordinary performance.

Cinematography by Siddharta Nuni and Gomtesh Upadhye is mind-blowing, both indoor&outdoor sequences have been well shot with excellent lighting system.

Music by the débutant Poornachandra Tejasvi, is soulful, magical, engaging, foot-tapping n will haunt you even after you've left the cinema hall. The background score is out of the world. Singers : Naveen Sajju, Bappi Blossom, Udith, Ananya Bhat n others have given a lot of life with their voice….way to go people. All the best n congrats.

The support cast n crew also doesn't go unnoticed, I'm unaware of their names but remember each n every character, the detective, cops, item;), The tall scary villain, the foreigners; all in all very good performances.

Few things which I thought could've been better : 1. Second half seems to be little longer with few lengthy scenes, though the film's duration is 138 minutes, I thought at least 8-10 minutes of the movie could've been shot. 2. Helu Shiva song could've been shot better, for me it wasn't that impactive as others. 3. Only 1 scene in which Sruthi doesn't look too good is when Satish n his parents come to see her at her house, make-up could've been better.

All in all L-Lovable, U-Unique, C- Clever, I- Involving, A – Amazing. Don't miss this dream, you'll enjoy it. A milestone in Kannada cinema. My rating : 4.75/5.

Watched the much awaited, much hyped, crowd funded Kannada film "Lucia". Was/Is it worth the hype? Why did it win the audience award? Read on!!

I have been following on this film right from its initial days. Probably a time-line which goes couple of years back. There were many positives as well as fears on the process of how this film was made. Many in my friends circle doubted about the film but they wanted the process of crowd funding to succeed. But i stuck myself on the aspect of how this film will come-by as an end product and how it will look like on the silver screen. I have had little bit conversation on Lucia with Pawan before and for me thriller is one genre if not made well, immediately gets me angry, dissatisfied and feel like being cheated. Pawan Kumar surprised me today with Lucia. He exceeded my expectation. Its not about the process of crowd funding nor the stars who came to watch this but the film itself is so brilliant that my eyes went moist just because of the joy of cinema. Believe me i mean it when i state that this kind of film script attempt has never ever been tried before, forget about Sandalwood, not even in Tollywood or Bollywood. Pawan will be envied as a filmmaker as he has raised his bar too high and it will be challenging for him and interesting for us to see how he breaks this bar with his next ventures.

"Lucia" is path-breaking. There are no big stars in the film but it works because of the strong script, the twisted narration, outstanding cinematography (every frame was magical), honest performances by the entire star-cast no matter they played major or minor roles. Technically this is extremely well handled film. Even the art direction is brilliant. I do not have to say about the music as it is already popular. One important aspect about songs is that the songs fit in sync with the script. It is hard to get a sync of song and the script. Only a thoughtful filmmaker can handle this efficiently.

If you still think that this did not convince you here are more reasons on why you should watch this film. - You like movies by Chris Nolan (Inception),David Fincher (Fight Club), Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Diparadiso), Alejandro Amenabar (Open Your Eyes) then Lucia is a must watch. - You follow world cinema and appreciate thrillers then here is an Indian regional movie of that caliber. You ought to try this one. It has English subtitles so it should not matter for you the fact that this is a Kannada or regional film. - You like to be surprised while you watch a movie then do watch this. This is not an edge of seat thriller but a profound and surreal psychological thriller. - This is a "bring your brain to theater" movie very much in contrast to Rohit Shetty / SRKs Chennai Express.

I have not mentioned anything about the story-line as i want you to experience "Lucia", the ALTERNATE KANNADA CINEMA all by yourself.