Movie Reviews - Lucia

Most of the times, its the star cast, trailer, hype around the budget, rumours about the storyline that are the factors that get people excited about a movie. But it was all quite different for Lucia. Mainly because none of the factors mentioned above were the catalysts behind promoting it.

I had been following Pawan's updates on Facebook since he set shop on Lucia. Not only is this a one of a kind crowd funded Kannada movie but in my opinion, should have actually been called "SociaLucia". Mainly because the musical backbone and tune pumping arteries were actually discovered using Facebook and Youtube. I also felt that Pawan's openness in sharing intricate details of the project regularly was very commendable.

So this meant that as soon as I heard about Lucia being featured on the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF), I booked the tickets for its world première. On the day, me and silent arrived quite early at the venue and saw Pawan walking around quite tensed, mainly because he couldn't connect to the wifi and update his followers. He genuinely sounded quite apologetic that he couldn't carry out live streaming as promised. But must say, a humble guy who still has his feet grounded and a vision set for the stars. He too studied in PESIT and was a dropout and I'm glad he did that!!

I'm not going to play a spoilsport and hence will not be revealing any spoilers here. The movie starts with the hero Satish having a pretty relaxed life as an usher in his close friend's movie theatre (to get the exactly feel of the scene, in his words its "ನಮ್ ಶಂಕರನ್ನನ talkies ನಾಗೆ ಬ್ಯಾಟೆರಿ ಬುಡೋ ಕೆಲಸ ನಂದು") . His only problem in life being insomnia. One day he comes across a few guys who introduce him to "Lucia" which would then change his life totally.

He then starts dreaming that he is a pretty famous movie star who is not devoid of all the fame and glamour attached to it. What follows this is two stories that run in parallel throughout the movie. To differentiate the movie star story from the  ಬ್ಯಾಟೆರಿ ಬುಡೋ story, its shown in black and white. 

While he maintains a rugged look with a stubble as an usher, he has a clean shaven (surprisingly extremely smart) look as a movie star. For any sequence that occurs in one side of the story, there is a well thought of sequence occurring in the other. While he falls in love with a girl who visits the theatre to watch a movie with her friends, the same girl enters his dreams as an item dancer who starts flirting with him (*plays Jamma Jamma song*).

There are hundreds of such scenarios throughout the movie and I stand the risk of drifting towards revealing spoilers if I start explaining them in detail. The stories move at a good pace on both the sides and at the end, you see a guy who finally finds a cure for his insomnia in a way which most people would find quite calming.

I give the movie a 5/5 for numerous factors. Firstly, because of the story and the vision behind it. Must say, it had a certain "Nolanesque" feel to it. You might hear people saying that its similar to Inception, The Machinist , Insomnia etc but don't believe them. Its nothing like any of them and is based on a totally different concept which I haven't seen in any movie.

Secondly, the music is absolutely fantastic and if you've followed Pawan on Facebook, you would have even seen the long history behind some of the songs which makes it even better. "ನೀ ಮಾಯೆಯೊಳಗೋ, ಮಾಯೆ ನಿನ್ನೊಳಗೊ" is probably one of the best songs that I've heard that actually mirror the situation in the movie. In an essence, the lyrics of that song actually sum up the movie.

Finally, Satish and Sruthi are absolutely wonderful in both their roles. ಕ್ವಾಟಲೆ Satisha has indeed given a kwaatle performance in the movie. When the movie does come out in your city, please watch it as I can guarantee you that its going to be a cult favourite. Oh !! and one more thing, you might want to watch the movie a second time. You'll know the reason once you watch it.

To contribute your bit to become a part of history and also help the movie makers, please do pre-order the movie using the below link.


Preorder Lucia and make the dream come true

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Sai Baba's Last Trick

Yesterday was actually a day of lots of known birthdays. Undoubtedly, Sachin's was the biggest of them all. People from Karnataka will probably remember that it was Rajkumar's birthday as well. On a personal note, I feel he was very over rated and had successfully managed to apply a lipstick to his controversy riddled career. The only reason I like him is because of all those audio clips about "Rajanna" that went viral during the good old college days. Hard to believe that cricketer turned umpire Dharmasena too celebrated his 40th birthday. I'm sure he will be going through some strange emotions whenever he sees people like Shane Warne who are older than him begging him to give the batsman out. But more than all of these birthdays, I'm more happy that it was the death day of Sai Baba.

While I had taken a swing against Sai Baba in The God, The Religion and The Ugly, I'm actually happy to see that his nuts have been finally laid to rest. I utterly detest all the self proclaimed god men. While I do pity the people who believe in them, I sometimes feel that people who actually fall for those kind of silly tricks actually deserve to be deceived. Not long ago was Nityananda caught on camera in compromising positions. Funny thing with all these scandals is that the females flashing flamboyantly in the videos actually deny that its them when they can actually come out with newer and fresher videos like Paris Hilton or simply show their sense of humor by saying that they would have probably bought something from Ann Summers if they knew that they were being taped.

Coming back to Sai Baba, he is probably the biggest con artist of the recent times. A person who not only looted people by exploiting their weakness in belief but also proved to be an ultra safe locker for all the politicians' dirty money. While all his tricks have been well exposed, his internal affairs have also been put out there in the public for people to see. Watch some of the recommended videos on YouTube and you'll know what I'm talking about. There are many men who have been molested by him and there is no denying the fact that inspite of being a vegetarian , baba loved "sausages". I even stumbled upon a few pics from his childhood, which show that he was even a cross dresser and that he has always been a person trying to come out of the closet.

With everything said and done, I guess he is only one among numerous other petty con artists out there. Awareness is something that is lacking and people tend to assume that anything that doesn't have a simple explanation is an act of god or now, god men. Only when they start critiquing and questioning these acts, the glorified magicians will bite the dust. The only commendable trick of Sai Baba is that he made people believe that he died yesterday when he had already died few days back.

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