The final revelation, which takes cues from a famous work of Shakespeare, achieves the desired effect. The Luca-Niharika portions are dominated by Turquoise the Akbar-Fathima portions by browns and yellows.
This is a film that makes you more aware of its characters’ surroundings than themselves -a quality that sometimes works to its detriment. There is incessant rain in Akbar-Fathima portions (present) whereas the Luca-Niharika portions (past) are always dry. I can’t at the moment recall any other film where I saw rain being used as a marker to distinguish two different timelines. When Niharika’s diary comes into Akbar’s possession, we are as eager as he is to unlock the final mystery.įrom the first stunning frame to the last-cinematographer Nimish Ravi is definitely a talent to watch out for-Luca is an exercise in atmospheric storytelling. He still hasn’t gotten over the memory of a past relationship, which is standing in the way of a smooth marital relationship with his wife Fathima (Vinitha Koshy). He is struggling to deal with the conflicted emotions pertaining to his personal life but at the same time has to be careful not to let that interfere with the job at hand.Īkbar is essentially the male version of Revathi’s character from Mani Ratnam’s Mouna Ragam.
The character who serves as the umbilical cord to the audience is Akbar. But as both Tovino and Niharika deliver solid performances, I can’t really complain. It doesn’t feel like two complete strangers falling in love for the first time. On the first day of their encounter, Luca and Niharika interact as if they are old friends reuniting after many years. (Speaking of coffee, Luca is a coffee addict.) I find it hard to take seriously any ‘serious’ relationship that is developed like instant coffee. I must admit that the pay-off of their romance is more moving than the set-up. A deep, inseparable bond is established between them instantly. When Niharika (Ahaana Krishna) walks into his disorderly existence one day, his life takes a drastic turn. The only son of parents who passed away due to unnatural deaths when he was still a child, Luca carries the unbearably heavy burden of its after-effects, consequently rendering him necrophobic (fear of death, dead bodies or any situation involving death).Īn incredibly gifted scrap artist, he is at his best when he is doing his art. He is an open book-someone who finds perfection in imperfection. One of these characters, Luca (Tovino Thomas) has no qualms about revealing his ‘spelling mistakes’ to all. The closest examples are KG George’s Yavanika or Padamarajan’s Kariyilakaattu Pole from the latter Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard or Martin Scorsese’s Casino from the former.īeginning with the investigating officer, Akbar (Nithin George), every character in Luca is going through some form of emotional trauma.Įveryone has a ‘spelling mistake’, as one character remarks.
Similar plot openings have been tried before not just in Hollywood but also in Malayalam cinema.